When John Krasinki’s A Quiet Place first hit the scene in 2018, audiences were surprised by the actor/filmmaker’s ability to craft edge-of-your-seat, silent tension. He took a pretty basic premise and turned it into a realistic, human family drama…that just happened to have a bunch of killer aliens in it.
Krasinski wasn’t originally set to return behind the camera for A Quiet Place Part II but he changed his mind when he got an idea that he just couldn’t shake. While the details of the plot are still locked up, the first trailer for the sequel hints that Krasinski’s idea was to go much bigger. Much, much bigger.
The first trailer above gives us a look at Emily Blunt’s character as she and her children attempt to survive the ravaged world full of monsters. But it seems that this movie will incorporate much larger set pieces and flashbacks to the beginning of the alien invasion that started this whole mess. Being a fan of apocalyptic fiction, I love that we will get flashbacks. There is nothing scarier or more exciting than the breakdown of society and Krasinski seems to be promising just that. I get a lot of Dawn of the Dead and War of the Worlds vibes from the snippets we see.
Overall it just feels that this movie will really expand upon the original. That’s a brave choice to make. Of course many will be elated to see a bigger canvas for Krasinski to paint on but with great opportunity comes great risk. Part of what made A Quiet Place so special was its minor size and how, well, quiet it really was. I understand the temptation to enlarge the scope but does that take away some of what made the first film so special? I really want to believe in Krasinski because this all looks tailor-made for me but sequels — especially horror sequels — are damn hard to pull off.
While I said that we don’t get much of the plot, we do get a sense that those who made it through the collapse of society aren’t the most stand-up citizens. Cillian Murphy’s character says as much in the final moments of the trailer. And he should know, he survived the end of 28 Days Later.
A Quiet Place Part II hits theaters on March 20, 2020.
