Krasinski has also stretched his talents into writing and directing, most notably with the surprise hit A Quiet Place in 2018, which he wrote, directed, and starred in along with his wife, Emily Blunt. After that film raked in over $350 million at the box office against a budget of just $22 million, a sequel was all but inevitable, and Krasinski once again returned to bat the writing/directing/acting cycle. 

A Quiet Place 2 took the usual pandemic-postponed path before finally making its way to big screens. Originally planned for a March 2020 release, it was pulled when cinemas across the country closed and then continued to be pushed back. But Krasinski was fairly insistent this movie be seen in a theater as a shared experience and not be pushed to a streamer or PVOD release. Quiet Place 2 ultimately hit theaters on May 28, where it had one of the biggest post-pandemic openings before finally coming to Paramount Plus and becoming available for digital download via other retailers—including Kaleidescape—on July 12 after a shortened 45-day exclusive theatrical window. 

Although this sequel can be viewed on its own without having seen the original, you’d really be doing yourself a disservice by doing so. Not only does the first film give you a lot of context to better understand the characters and events of the second film, it’s also a terrifically entertaining movie in its own right with a deeply engrossing and engaging Atmos sound mix. 

While the original film begins some 89 days after a sudden and unexplained invasion by a horde of blind, armored alien creatures with hypersensitive hearing and super speed intent on killing every human they encounter and follows the Abbott family as they learn to survive in near total silence to remain hidden from the creatures, the second begins at the first day of the invasion. Not only does this provide a bit of exposition for new viewers, it provides a chance to bring Lee Abbott (Krasinski) back for a bit.

After the opening, Quiet Place 2 jumps ahead to Day 474, a short time after the events of the first film. The Abbott family of Evelyn (Blunt), hearing-impaired teenage daughter Regan (Millicent Simmonds), and adolescent son Marcus (Noah Jupe) are still living on their farm, caring for the infant child born near the end of the first film. After noticing some signal fires on the horizon, the family sets out to try to find a safer place and other survivors, where they meet up with an old family friend, Emmett (Cillian Murphy), who is living in an abandoned steel factory that provides a measure of sonic security from the aliens. 

While scrolling through a radio dial looking for any signals, they stumble across a station playing “Beyond the Sea” on repeat. Millicent believes this is a clue as to where other survivors are living, and she sets off on a quest to find them and see if she can weaponize her cochlear implant by playing the high-frequency feedback it produces through the radio’s transmitter. But not all of the human survivors are good, which adds another element to the danger. 

Similar to the first film, the sequel has a taut sub-90-minute runtime that moves along at a brisk clip. By splitting the family into three groups with separately evolving storylines, there’s always some measure of tension and suspense. And because characters are generally whispering or communicating via sign language, it forces you to pay attention, almost leaning forward in your seat, making you even more susceptible to the film’s several quality jump-scare moments. 

This has more action and excitement than the first one and certainly gives a far better look at the aliens. With a much larger budget, it also feels like a “bigger” movie without losing the focus of the first one. 

A fair bit of Quiet Place 2 looked a bit soft and grainy, which made a lot more sense after I learned it was shot on 35mm film. While the home transfer is taken from a 4K digital intermediate, it definitely doesn’t have that tack-sharp look of digitally-shot productions. While there are plenty of shots—specifically closeups—that have abundant sharpness, clarity, and detail, there are also quite a few moments—specifically long shots or scenes with extreme low lighting—that are soft and a bit grain-heavy, and more resemble a good Blu-ray transfer than a true 4K film.

Many of the scenes are shot in dark or very low-lit interiors, such as one of the principal locations inside an abandoned steel foundry and often inside an old forge with the door closed. Here HDR gives us nice shadow depth and detail, delivering very natural and realistic image quality. There are also quite a few scenes filmed by firelight (actual fires, candles, or lighters) that benefit from HDR’s wider range. 

For a film with “Quiet” in its title, you might not expect the sound mix to play an important role but that couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, both this and the original film have absolutely terrific Atmos mixes that really help throw you into the scenes. Sound is a vital element to the story, and the mixers take every opportunity to provide directional cues to what is happening, heightening the suspense and tension of the action. 

There’s so much tense silence in the films where little clicks, creaks, and noises inform you what is happening—or when you are thrust into the Regan’s silent hearing-space when she is without her cochlear implant, where sound can go almost totally silent, emotionally placing you in the intensity of her character’s peril. 

By decreasing the noise floor of other sounds—and knowing that every noise could trigger an attack—you are more in tune and aware of all the tiny sounds that make up the sonic fabric of the world. Whether it is the sound of birds chirping and wind rustling, the clicking and skittering noises of the creatures moving around and overhead, the tinkling of glass bottles, or the flooding rush of a fire sprinkler, you are frequently immersed in the action. 

My one sonic nit was that some of Murphy’s dialogue could be a bit difficult to understand. He often speaks with a semi-closed-mouth husky whisper that can make understanding a bit of a challenge, so if your processor offers some form of “dialogue lift,” you might want to engage it. 

A Quiet Place 2 is like a classic horror film where suspense and what you don’t see provides much of the scares, which is perfect for people who don’t like what the modern horror genre has become. The violence is mostly bloodless, and not the focus of the film. Not only does it make for a great night at the movies, I think it actually plays better in a well-designed home theater outfitted with an array of Atmos height and surround speakers for the full experience.