Certainly less lean and no-nonsense than the first instalment and too reliant on stupid horror movie characters acting like stupid horror movie characters, A QUIET PLACE PART II is still a mostly solid follow-up. After a pretty breathtaking opening flashback documenting the day the aliens arrived on Earth, we pick up exactly where the first film left off as the Abbott family search for sanctuary and survivors. A bigger budget means the sonic-reliant creatures are usually shown in daylight and the film certainly doesn’t skimp on the action front. At its heart this is Regan’s (Millicent Simmonds) story and she gets to confirm her position as the franchise’s active main hero even as the rest of her family get by mainly on luck. This definitely loses something in the final act and ends rather abruptly, perhaps hinting that some plot points needed to be left open enough to pick up in the inevitable third instalment. SSP