If they hear you, they hunt you. Silence is survival in these two terrifyingly suspenseful thrillers. Follow the Abbott family (Emily Blunt, John Krasinski, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe) as they face the terror of mysterious creatures that hunt by sound.
Following the deadly events at home, the Abbott family (Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe) must now face the terrors of the outside world as they continue their fight for survival in silence. Forced to venture into the unknown, they quickly realize that the creatures that hunt by sound are not the only threats that lurk beyond the sand path in this “gripping, edge-of-your-seat thriller” (Scott Mantz, BFCA) written and directed by John Krasinski.
In celebration of A Quite Place Place Part II’s ultimate viewing experience with the 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack, which includes an Ultra HD Disc with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos and a Blu-ray Disc™ with Dolby Atmos; the Koalition spoke with Ethan Van der Ryn and Erik Aadahl from the movie’s sound department about the behind the scene creation process and the importance of sound in this sequel.
A Quiet Place earned Ethan Van Der Ryan and Erik Aadahl their third Academy Award nomination as a sound editing team, adding to a career that spans movies from Titanic to Space Jam: A New Legacy. While they have easily mastered the art of creating tension with silence with Part 2 they had to up the tension even more.
“The whole idea of exploring Regan, the deaf daughter, her point of view sonically was something we started playing with on the first movie. On Part 2, John [Krasinki] ran with that idea and wrote it into many different moments in the film and that’s something we’re able to drive that whole idea a little further and take it to places that we haven’t really been able to go in the first film; because there is a lot more action in this movie it gave us opportunities to go from crazy loud bombastic action into total silence. As a sound designer that’s like a real treat to be able to do something like that. That was something new on this film.”
“Another new thing on this film, in A Quiet Place Part 1 we really didn’t spend that much time with these creatures. They were often mostly in the shadows; very few of them. We kind of established their behavior and their language and figured out how to use clicks as echo location because they’re basically blind, they used that to visualize their environments to hunt. Part 2 we had to take that logic and then take it a few more steps. There’s a lot more creatures and we learn that they can communicate. So we had to kind of figure out that language and what that sounded like. The only way to do that is to go totally experimental and to just start playing with sound.”
To create the new sounds of the monsters, Van Der Ryan and Aadahl turned to an unlikely source: a stun gun and animals. The creatures use hearing to hunt so replicating the sounds of dolphins and bats made the most sense.
“That’s the fun thing about sound it’s such an abstract art. We take sounds that we’ll record and design that nothing to do with what’s happening on screen but you can put them together and it creates this amazing kind of magic and that’s what I love about cinema. Sound is half the experience, when you can give yourself goosebumps using sound and together with picture is such a treat,” concluded.
To learn more about the power of sound in A Quiet Place Part 2, check out our full interview above.
A Quiet Place Part II is available on Digital July 13th and will debut on 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack, Blu-ray and DVD July 27th from Paramount Home Entertainment.
