Note: This interview took place before John Krasinski announced via Twitter on the morning of March 12, 2020 that the film’s initial release of March 20, 2020 would be postponed due to COVID-19 concerns.
Moviegoers were treated to a cinematic experience that innovated a genre and left audiences in absolute silence when “A Quiet Place” came out in 2018. Garnering critical acclaim and audience praise, the film became massively successful. Now, with a highly anticipated sequel, John Krasinski, director of both films and co-star of the first, is back to continue the story of the Abbott family by forcing them into a dangerous and unfamiliar world as they grapple with the loss of a husband and father.
The first film thematically explores parenthood in a world where the slightest sound could mean death at the hands of creatures driven to a murderous frenzy, and the evolution of that metaphor is what brought Krasinski back for the sequel.
“The first movie is about that promise that you make to your kids as a parent that is, ‘As long you stay close to me, I can protect you forever.’” Krasinski said in a March 6 interview with the Daily Emerald and other college publications. “Every parent knows that that’s a false promise and one day that promise will be broken, and I think that when that promise is broken, I believe that’s what growing up is.”
Exploring the notion of parenthood is personal for Krasinski and lead Emily Blunt as the two have two young children together. Using the fictional elements of monsters in a post-apocalyptic landscape to examine reality is a compelling aspect of the horror genre for Krasinski, a genre he previously wasn’t a fan of. “I realized that the storytelling medium might be the best genre to tell stories because you’re able to bend reality in a way that allows people to examine the world in a way that’s not too in their face,” Krasinski said.
Due to the nature of the creatures in the films, the movies are mostly devoid of spoken dialogue. The result is a film that heightens the experience of sound and the suspense created by its absence. “Making a movie that has so little dialogue, I think people sort of get focused in a weird way,” he said. “I started telling the story that not only I fell in love with, but then and watching the footage, I think it’s 10 times scarier than the first one because you’re scared for this family…you genuinely love them.”
While the jumps and scares are of the utmost importance to Krasinski, the Abbott family is the driving factor of the film. For him, it’s a deeply personal expression of being a parent. “The first movie was a love letter to my kids about what I see sort of parenting being encapsulated as. I would say the second movie is a letter that I wrote to them about all my hopes and dreams and what they could be,” said Krasinksi, “ and I hope they’re as brave and courageous in these dark, dark times, that they would be the brave ones to light a candle in the middle of all that darkness.”
