A Quiet Place Part II

The sequel to John Krasinski’s surprise 2018 horror hit “doesn’t do anything fancy, nor does it need to,” said Brian Truitt in USA Today. We moviegoers want “snarling, nightmarish monsters that fill up a big screen,” and the actor turned director has brought back his particular breed of alien predators for a holiday weekend release that “works as one heck of a chilling fix for audiences dipping their toes back into reopened cinemas.” The underlying premise remains the same: A young family is trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world prowled by large creatures that attack at the slightest sound. Meanwhile, Krasinski’s character is only seen now in flashback.

But as a director he again proves “a master of ratcheting up tension,” and his wife and co-star, Emily Blunt, is “still the second coming of Sigourney Weaver.” Strangely, though, Part II sidelines Blunt’s shotgunwielding mother of three when it sends the oldest child on a mission, said A.A. Dowd in AVClub.com. That does make room for more of Cillian Murphy as a recluse who provides a refuge for the Abbotts and suggests to them that humans are monsters, too. “Yet Part II barely scratches the surface of that idea.” Even so, “a killer hook is a killer hook,” said Justin Chang in the Los Angeles Times. And deaf actress Millicent Simmonds, returning as a resourceful teenager, is remarkable as the franchise’s new hero. “Her mesmerizing presence sustains you,” even when Part II “registers as a somewhat muted echo.” (In theaters only) PG-13

AVClub.com. The “brisk, brutal” culture-war thriller follows an ultrawealthy white family that is throwing a swanky wedding reception in Mexico City when armed rioters scale the estate walls. The vision of class revolution that follows is “disturbing, not inspiring.” But whatever your perspective, New Order “works as a gripping apocalyptic horror movie.” (In theaters only) R