For my first venture into a theater, still restricted for COVID, I screened A Quiet Place II, coincidentally the very last movie I saw in a theater, on March 9, 2020. When life changed the following weekend, it was understood, the very last thing anyone should see at this time is a work of art that could induce nightmares of a world besieged by unknown killer entities. Wisely, the movie’s opening was put on hold. Now fourteen months later, and on second view, the film feels even more special. Don’t miss it.

Here is what I wrote about the film, and its swank premiere from 2020:

Introducing the next chapter to the hit horror movie, A Quiet Place, writer/director John Krasinski said he never wanted to make a sequel, and now he prefers the new one: “That’s for you to decide,” he said to the rapt audience at the Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Hall premiere. Expect: the most successful franchise ever.

If you liked the first one, you will like A Quiet Place II. The crowd cheered wildly as the family, baby in arms, makes their way through a landscape emptied of people, besieged by grotesque creatures averse to sound. Because the filmmaking is superb, from story to direction, special effects to editing, the movie, as in the first, is riveting, reinventing the genre. You cannot look away from beginning to end at those faces: Emily Blunt as the every-mom turned action hero has her match in Millicent Simmonds, as the fiercely smart daughter who strategizes a route to survival. Simmonds who we first met on the set of Todd Haynes’ Wonderstruck, has grown up. Now 17, Simmonds is luminous, in the manner of silent movie stars of yore, and Krasinski takes full advantage. For this episode, Cillian Murphy joins in on the journey, meeting up with good guy Djimon Hounsou. Without revealing too much, there are boats involved.

Which may explain why the after party took place at Central Park’s Boathouse, making this premiere old-school special as New Yorkers navigate their own route through an inexplicable danger. In this serene setting, we could forget coronavirus for a moment. Blunt, resplendent in Oscar de la Renta explained how her movie baby is played by four. “If one is quiet, they’d use that one, or bring in the one crying.” As for John Krasinski, now poised to make the next episode, the highest praise is to say, “I was terrified.”