I can still remember the day I saw James Cameron’s Avatar in theaters. Not just a theater but an IMAX. Moving pictures and sounds had never been bigger, shinier, or better than on that screen that day. A few months later, one of my buddies invited me over to watch it again on his parents’ 40-or-so-inch TV and I was confused. This wasn’t the same movie. And then we tried playing it for a group at an after prom party a month later and didn’t even end up finishing it. What happened? My favorite movie ever, the only movie to approach the echelon 17-year-old me put The Dark Knight in, was actually boring? Ill paced? Formulaic? Why didn’t I see those problems the first time?
Because I was under the spell of the theater.
A Flair for the Theatric
I’ve had a handful of truly great theatrical experiences in my lifetime. Some of them, very personal, like watching the climax of Toy Story 3 at a drive-in with a group of friends I’d known since kindergarten the summer after we graduated high school. Others universal, like when 2.8 billion dollars worth of people packed theaters everywhere to see the culmination of the eleven year Marvel era in Avengers: Endgame.
A Hall of Fame time at the theater that I wasn’t expecting was when Jim from The Office made a little horror movie with his wife and literally shut everyone the hell up for 90 minutes in Spring of 2018.
The Theater was A Quiet Place
A Quiet Place demanded to be seen in a packed theater. Not to hear people cheer when Cap raised Mjölnir or to hear them sob when Woody and the gang fell into the incinerator, but for the opposite. To really hear a room full of people go silent. Shame the devil if anyone chomped popcorn or slurped slushie or rustled a candy wrapper. A community of movie goers joined in silence for this hour and a half as the family on screen came together against an unbelievable foe. John Krasinski and writers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods gave us a cinematic experience.
Of course we had to wait for theaters to be able to play the sequel.
We are coming out of 14 months of watching movies on laptops and phones. I watched the 2020 Best Picture nominees while in bed, on the can, at the gym, while eating breakfast, etc. Netflix is great, but it’s time we all *go* to the movies.
ONLY in Theaters…
Every marketing team worth their salt has tried to make their film seem like it is the movie to bring back the theatrical audience. Turns out I would have been fine watching Russell Crowe’s Unhinged at home on my couch (or not at all). New Mutants defied all logic and decided after 3 years of waiting, the middle of a worldwide pandemic was the opportune time to release. Maybe if it wasn’t for their simultaneous release on HBO Max, the blockbuster draws of Wonder Woman or King Kong v. Godzilla would have marked the great return to the theater. Every movie that’s played on any size screen for a year has tried to convince us that you have to be in a theater to see it the right way. Only A Quiet Place Part II has the movie to back that claim up.
Krasinski is taking a break from bringing us some good news to bring the follow-up horror franchises dream of. A Quiet Place Part II taps into a similar magic the first introduces, without retredding it. We get more to the story without spoiling the mystery of the first. We are left with more to the world without trying to wrap it up in a neat tidy bow. If you liked the first one, you get more in the second; a great sequel.
How to Watch a Movie:
It’s been a while for some of us since we ventured into a theater, so allow me to give you a couple reminders.
1. Oh yeah, 20 minutes of trailers.
Movies were in a holding pattern there for a minute, but they are coming back with a vengeance. All those movies that already had press tours and trailers out in early 2020 are coming to a theater near you soon, and the studios have to remind us of them. When I saw Unhinged last summer there were maybe three trailers and they all said “coming 2021” or “out soon”. No longer. The drinking game to play now is to take a shot for every trailer that ends with “only in theaters“. Trust me, you’ll black out before the first black title card of the film.
2. No spoilers please.
It’s a horror movie, so the spoilable aspects of Quiet Place 2 I guess are who dies and how, so I won’t do that. But the trailer (that it’s hard to avoid while watching YouTube or the Stanley Cup Playoffs or at the front of ANY OTHER movie in theaters) also spoils the first few minutes. In addition to the whole quiet schtick of the first one, I also contend Quiet Place 1 has one of horror’s greatest first deaths. If you haven’t been spoiled to how the sequel begins, try to keep it that way.
3. Chew with your mouth closed.
It’s annoying enough when someone buys crunchy nachos at the movies but it is against the law for this movie. There aren’t as many of those shockingly quiet scenes that the first one did so well, but A QUIET Place still relies on quiet to some degree. Please. Don’t be that guy.
4. No need to stay after the credits.
I know this is a sequel and the door is left open for a third, but you aren’t watching a Marvel movie folks. Appreciate the Best Boy and Key Grip if you want but don’t expect a tease for Krasinski’s next project.
This also goes for Saw 9 in theaters now too. I thought naïvely that the Book of Saw would give us a peak at the next chapter after the credits, but no such luck. You only have to hold your pee for the superhero flicks. Especially when they’re four hours long, MAN I’m glad theaters didn’t give a run at the Snyder Cut. Some things are better experienced in my living room. With snack breaks. And bathroom breaks. And that time I took a break and then got caught up with something else and then just finished it two days later. Yeah. That’s how Justice League is best viewed.
The Best Viewing Experience
But A Quiet Place Part II is ripe for a theatrical viewing experience. The worst entertainment news I’ve seen this week is that after a month and a half window in theaters, it will make its way to streaming just like everything else. Paramount+ is the destination, if you’re curious. Paramount+ is what they’re calling CBS All Access these days. It’s the one with Dora the Explorer in their commercials. Never mind it doesn’t really matter. There are some movies that take advantage of the venue better than others. I still haven’t worked up the courage to give the first one a rewatch at home, because I’m afraid it won’t live up to that time I saw it on the big screen with a silent crowd. This might fall to the same category. We’ve been waiting so long folks and movies are back. Enjoy it with a good movie.
A Quiet Place Part II is a sequel to the Krasinski directed and Emily Blunt starring A Quiet Place (2018). It is in theaters. That’s a good sentence to write.
Cole also really loves writing about horror movies. You can check out some of his stuff here.