WARNING: The following contains spoilers for A Quiet Place II, now in theatres.
When A Quiet Place came out, fans and critics were wowed by the original concept of monsters hunting based on sound. Having the heroes in silence and using sign language to save themselves created a sense of dread and tension the horror genre's been lacking, given its overreliance on cheap jump-scares. However, in A Quiet Place Part II, the film's sense of horror suffers a monstrous flaw by making the creatures bland, predictable and boring.
In the first film, audiences were on the edge of their seats as the beasts hunted the Abbotts. But bringing them back the same way in the sequel feels one-dimensional. It's already known that they can't stand the sonic frequencies emitted from Regan's earpiece, and water is brought in as something that inhibits but doesn't kill them.
In that sense, the monsters should have been changed up a bit to give viewers something fresh. Instead, it's the same design. As cool as the creatures look, they are similar to the Upside Down's Demogorgon in Stranger Things. They also look eerily similar to HBO's Lovecraft Country or even the Italian horror series 30 Coins. This makes these sound-hunters feel flat, even if they came before.
It's not just the look but the tone. This dynamic of a human sense being a threat was since explored in Bird Box, where a person died if they looked at the creatures taking over the world. It's also the same theme in films like The Silence, with its bird-like monsters that hunt by sound and the upcoming Awake, where people who sleep become deranged.
Having the monsters in A Quiet Place II evolve would have been a great twist that audiences wouldn't have seen coming. Had they hunted via sight or even smell, it'd have upped the ante for the Abbotts and other pockets of human resistance. Furthermore, it would have made the water handicap more significant, resonating greater with the island colony arc.
The film could have even sent a second wave to Earth, featuring new-looking monsters similar to how Predator has different levels to their species. Even if they hunted via sound only, having these fresh, bigger, faster and better aliens would have made the invasion much more intriguing. Instead, everyone already knows how to kill the creatures. So, with A Quiet Place II's heroes and villains the same, the film is rudimentary and lacks suspense.
Written and directed by John Krasinski, A Quiet Place: Part II stars Emily Blunt, Djimon Hounsou, Noah Jupe, Millicent Simmonds and Cillian Murphy. The film is now in theaters.
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