This post contains spoilers-ish.
Aside from the obvious reasons that Latter-day Saints should love the film A Quiet Place—there is no sex or nudity, no curse words, no immodest clothing (although we do see Emily Blunt’s shoulders for about 3 minutes), and the strongest theme in the film is that Families Are Important (not to mention how the brilliant and lovely Millicent Simmonds, who plays the deaf daughter, grew up in Bountiful, Utah)—I came up with ten other reasons why this film should really resonate with Mormons.
- It is every LDS prepper’s dreamscape. Guaranteed an LDS family out there somewhere watched this film and then went home and built a secret soundproof bunker in the basement with an opening that can be covered with a mattress in a hurry.
- Mormon families who can keep their 8 kids (ranging in ages from 18 years to 18 months old) reverent and quiet during three hours of church can now brag about how much longer their family would live than the rest of us.
- Like any good Mormon family, the Abbott family takes the initiative to “multiply and replenish the Earth” seriously, even during a post-apocalyptic world surrounded by hungry, vicious, grotesque monsters who will definitely violently devour any and all crying babies.
- That part when the family prays over their dinner.
- That other part when it’s basically a father-son boy scout adventure and the miamaid is super frustrated that she has to stay home and do laundry instead.
- The scene in the dried corn is reminiscent of a Mormon tradition common to Utah pumpkin patches and Halloween carnivals. (Here, kids: see if you can not drown in this giant vat of dried corn we have created in this edifice rigged together with tarps and hay bales.)
- Mormons who love finding biblical symbols in everything they consume will appreciate references to Moses in the bulrushes, lights being shined on hilltops (and not under bushels), and nails in feet. (They will be smugly less impressed by the baby baptism scene, however.)
- The film portrays motherhood as the embodiment of strength, faith, grit, and endurance. The whole time I kept thinking of my pioneer matriarch Margaret driving a team of oxen across the desert at nine months pregnant only to give birth in the bed of the covered wagon. She would watch this film and nod very knowingly during all of the Emily Blunt scenes, I think. Likewise, Krasinzki channels what I think is one of the best faces of Mormon masculinity: a look of concern that reads worry and love and hope and empathy and responsibility. I’ve seen many a bishop wear that face before.
- Children are given weighty responsibilities and entrusted with their own abilities to endure hard things and rely on their own common sense.
- Every member of the family secretly harbors guilt that they are the cause of ill fortune, and that if only they personally had been better tuned into the Spirit, nothing bad would have happened. (Acknowledging this and seeing the different members of the family confront this myth was actually really productive for me.)
By Common Consent, a Mormon Blog 
Ha to #3! My teenage daughter asked us why the wife would get pregnant after the invasion. My husbands answer, “Well, Jim from ‘The Office’ must be pretty irresistible.”
I really loved this movie for all of the above reasons.
My father was a WWII vet and my parents built a bomb shelter in the basement during the Cold War. We did practice runs living (for a night) in the bomb shelter, but we all refused to use the non-existent toilet facilities. The bomb shelter was next to the basement bathroom and we figured that a “little bit of radiation” was worth leaving the bomb shelter to use the toilet. Our family of ten would never have survived the ban on talking/noise, though.
The decision to have a baby despite the alien invasion made me want to cry. This showed such a degree of hope for the future and a determination to live a full life amid terrible challenges. This is the same choice that many Mormons (myself included) make to continue having a relationship with the church despite many problems with doctrine, policies, feminist issues, LGBT issues etc… I have hope for the future and I’ll continue to work to make my vision of a better church life possible.
Love it, Em.
Beautiful reply, DS. I, too, loved the decision they had to have another baby, for the same reasons. I’m being smart alecky in this post, but my favorite narrative these days is the one about being optimistic in seemingly hopeless situations, about carrying on even in a broken, violent world because there is enough still to live for and care for and hope for. I have seen this film twice now and bawled through it both times, because of the love in this family and their desire to share this love with a new little person, in spite of it all. Emily Blunt is my new mother-figure role model and superhero.
I love the movie. This is just icing on the cake. Thanks, Em!
Counting the “obvious” list, there are 15 reasons to see this film. I’m sold. Thank you.
This is great! I was wondering why an alien infested world felt strangely familiar to me.
lol Rebecca
My addition would be that Krazinski calls it a love letter to his children. <3
Oh, yes, of course! I am really in love with the Krasinzki/Blunt family right now. It is sincerely a beautiful message to their kids, and I love how authentically the act out these parents on screen: “Who are we if we can’t protect them?”
Saw it last night and you hit the nail on the head, or on the foot . . .
Really beautiful reply, DS.
I enjoyed the movie but something about it rubbed me the wrong way. Then I read this: https://lettersfromshelby.wordpress.com/2018/04/10/toxic-masculinity-and-the-gender-politics-of-a-quiet-place/
*Spoilers in the article*
Huh. Thanks for the link, K Smith. It was an interesting read, but I interpreted the film’s characters differently. Certainly traditional gender roles are present, but they are also complicated. Emily Blunt is as much a protector and defender as she is a nurturer. John Krasinzki is gentle and soft—not angry or violent, as the article suggests (he doesn’t “burn his son’s memories,” for one. He is sitting over a fire that calls out to the other local survivors and meditating over his son’s memories, but I’ve seen the film twice and never had any indication that he then burns the mementos he is looking at. The article’s conclusions don’t resonate with me, but I appreciate the alternative perspective.
Seems to me the only reason is that Mormons are people with hearts. That movie was so good, and everyone should see it.
Grover, I’m with you. I didn’t interpret the movie that way. I think the father is quiet and withdrawn because he can’t forgive himself for not saving his son. I think everyone in the family were bombarded with thoughts of how they could have prevented his death. I don’t see the father’s death as a self -righteous act but an attempt at redemption.
Great movie, and I think you nailed it with your post. Just don’t plan on loudly munching on popcorn if you go see it!
Great list! My sister had to convince me to go see it because it was listed in the horror genre and I don’t do horror. I can’t sleep for days after. I don’t think horror is an accurate description of A Quiet Place (psychological thriller, absolutely) and I’m glad I took her word for it and saw it in the theatre. I went to an afternoon matinee that was almost empty, and still felt I needed to coordinate my popcorn eating with the soundtrack playing!
Did they consciously choose to have another baby? I was under the impression that there wasn’t ready access to birth control in the post-alien apocalyptic world and that it was just one of those things that happens to a couple sans birth control…
I purposely didn’t read this post until I saw the movie, which I just returned from. So the first thing I did upon getting home was to read the post. Well done, and I agree with your thoughts. Unlike my kids i’m not a big horror fan, but I agree this wasn’t exactly horror (and sort out like Get Out in that way).
Funny moment: at the beginning of the show I saw the girl wearing hearing aids and realized I needed to put mine on as well!