Magic Lantern gambles: Opens ‘A Quiet Place: Part II”

Above: (Right to left) Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe star in "A Quiet Place: Part II," which opens Friday. (Photo/Paramount Pictures)

We know of the Magic Lantern Theatre as an art moviehouse. From its inception, way back in 1973 at it former site on Wall Street, that’s been its whole reason for being.

And it stayed that way, through its many years of opening and closing and ultimately reopening at its current address 25 W. Main Street. The Lantern played independent and subtitled foreign films when both appealed only to a small portion of Spokane’s populace.

But that populace was loyal, mostly. Not loyal enough to ever make the theater a thriving business (just ask some of the past owners). But loyal enough to keep the name alive.

As with the area’s mainstream cinemas, the Lantern has reopened. But the managers are clearly trying something different. On Friday the theater will vie with every other area theater by opening the dystopian blockbuster “A Quiet Place: Part II.”

You remember the first film, right? Directed by John Krasinski, from a script he co-wrote with Bryan Woods and Scott Beck, the film starred Krasinski, Emily Blunt (to whom Krasinski is married), Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe (who was so good opposite Shia LaBeouf in "Honey Boy").

The four make up a family that is trying to survive in a world invaded by killer aliens who hunt by sound. Thus the title: Everyone has to be quiet to avoid being torn apart.

Part II takes up where the original leaves off, though as the trailers show the film will also feature flashbacks to when the whole invasion began. The rest will entail Blunt’s character trying to shepherd her two children to safety – facing both the killer aliens and other threats.

This isn’t the first time the Lantern has played a big-budget film. But it is a departure from its standard fare (the other film the theater will continue to play is the German-language “When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit”).

Will it work? Will those who want to see “A Quiet Place: Part II” go to see it in the smaller, more intimate confines of the Magic Lantern rather than the larger-screen, bigger-sound mainstream theaters?

The Lantern’s managers clearly are betting that enough will to make it worth the effort.