By We at Flixist thought that A Quiet Place was quite a good movie. It was so good, in fact, that we deemed it our favorite horror movie of 2018! In that blog I noted my sincere hopes that a litany of half-baked sequels won’t sink the high expectations that the original set.
Usually the first sign of a crappy sequel is the loss of its director, and so it’s a relief to hear that sources are indicating that John Krasinski will return to direct A Quiet Place 2 after having been only officially attached to help write. That’s very cool news, even if it’s not completely confirmed, yet.
Krasinski demonstrated a great understanding of the world and how to pace and work a story so focused on silence into something really spectacular that a wide audience attached itself to. His work even taught me how to eat popcorn like a mouse, so I’m down to see how he grows as a director and continues to capture this world.
Emily Blunt’s deal has also reportedly been closed, marking her return to the story. She certainly carried much of the original with a bathtub scene I’m still thinking about, and I’m interested in seeing how her character continues to struggle, survive, and perhaps even fight in this universe littered with bizarre ear-spider predators. This leads me to expect the sequel, in Hellraiser 2 fashion, will follow directly in the footsteps of the original, since it did end on something of a cliffhanger.
Krasinski also announced the release date for A Quiet Place 2 on Instagram, which has the film set to hit theaters on May 15, 2020.
That pushes what was a low-budget horror directly into the start of summer blockbuster season, and I’m not sure how to feel about that. On one hand, bigger and better could be cool. We’d get to see more of the monsters and perhaps a larger swath of the earth in peril. We didn’t get to explore too far beyond the bounds of the family’s house in the original, so there is a lot of room to open up. On the other hand, I’m concerned we’ll see a lot more explanation for the monsters and get dumped with backstory. For me, wondering why the monsters are there is part of the fun, and the reasons writers and filmmakers come up with to explain everything normally show more of the flaws in the concept than they add weight and realism to it.
A Quiet Place is in an especially precarious position, since it takes place in a world where it’s reasonable to assume no one could survive. The more questions you ask, the less everything works. Last night, for instance, I farted in bed so hard that it woke me up. For a second I thought someone had broken into my home and grabbed me by the butt. If I were playing by A Quiet Place’s rules, I would have died. And what about sneezing, or getting the old whooping cough? These are questions that I don’t need answered, and I also don’t need to know why the aliens showed up in the first place, or how humanity tried to fight back against them. That storyline sounds like prime summer blockbuster fodder, and it’s the least interesting one A Quiet Place‘s universe could tell.
Let’s all hold our breath and hope for the best as we await more info. Also, let’s hope they call it something better than A Quiet Place 2. Numbered titles are dumb.
John Krasinski To Direct ‘A Quiet Place 2’, Emily Blunt Returning Too [Deadline]
