Silence (A Quiet Place; A Quiet Place Part II) - Maniac (2021)

A two in one edition of A Quiet Place I & II. Both great horror films in my view, so I was certainly intrigued to see what Maniac did here.

As usual, video quality and A/V editing is superb, didn’t notice even one transition, which is impressive. Flash frame at 53:24. There’s one flashback sequence towards the beginning which stands out as it looks professionally edited - the sound design in particular is commendable. Subs are present (Hard coded English), which is appreciated, especially since there’s a lot of sign language in these films.

Both of these films are pretty trim to begin with, yet the edits flow quite well with a few scenes and subplots cut - I didn’t feel the loss of most of the cut material. While moving the AQP2 flashback works well, I personally prefer the original AQP opening due to the suspense and mysterious nature of the creatures early on. But this scene had to be placed here as I don’t think it would’ve worked well later on, and in terms of the new overarching story it works better for Emmett to be introduced at the beginning.

Very smart creation of new flashbacks around the 35 minute mark. I also thought that cutting out the creatures attacking small animals was a good choice. Always felt this was a flaw of the original AQP, as if they were that sensitive to noise they’d be constantly attacking any animals that make the slightest sound, including insects.

Watching the originals for the first time was very tense due to the unpredictable nature of the films. While naturally some of that is lost on a rewatch, this edit keeps the films fresh through new flashbacks, a quicker, leaner story with fewer subplots, and very well chosen rescores. I greatly enjoyed revisiting these films, more so than I would have had I simply watched the originals. Another fine piece of work from Maniac.