Evil, genuine evil, is to be crushed. A new generation must learn to survive if an older generation is currently trying to survive. The family that stays together may survive together.

We may infer all this, and have fun as well, from watching A Quiet Place Part II (2021), John Krasinski‘s sequel to his first quiet-place movie of 2018. Again monster aliens are responding exclusively to the sounds people make as they seek to do away with the endangered people (and, boy, do they pounce). A commercial powerhouse, the film is equally troubling and exciting, albeit Ross Douthat is right about a modicum of undercooking in Krasinski’s script (the monsters have a second weakness). On the whole, though, the script seems to me properly cooked.

Part II stars Emily Blunt (Krasinski’s wife), Cillian Murphy, Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe. The acting is spot-on, though especially memorable are Murphy and, as young Marcus, Jupe. The males make a splash.