(Warning: This article contains spoilers about the movie A Quiet Place.)

I just recently saw a horror movie, which is a rarity for me. Anyone that knows me knows that I scare easily, and that I typically don’t like to watch scary movies because of it. And if I do make the rare exception to each a scary movie, it has to be during the day. But when my mom said that she wanted to go see A Quiet Place, I reluctantly agreed to go with her.

In case you haven’t heard about A Quiet Place, it’s a post-apocalyptic horror movie that centers around a family trying to remain undetected by leading a quiet life. There are dangerous creatures that roam the world, and capture their prey by detecting sound (the creatures cannot see). “If they hear you, they hunt you” is the movie’s slogan.

A Quiet Place, directed by John Krasinski and starring him and his real-life wife Emily Blunt, is different from other scary movies in that it uses silence to invoke fear (and makes you a little scared to crunch on your popcorn while watching the movie). But despite the fact that this movie can invoke a little fear and make you jump in your seat, it does have some important lessons about love and family.

In a scene between Emily Blunt and John Krasinski, Blunt’s character tells Krasinski’s that she still holds an immense amount of guilt for not being able to prevent the death of their youngest son, who was killed by one of these creatures after he turned on a toy rocket and caught the attention of the creature. She tells Krasinki’s character that she feels guilty about not holding onto her youngest son’s hand to ensure that he was safe and being watched. Blunt’s character’s concern is that if they cannot care for and protect their kids, who are they?

I think that Blunt’s character’s concern illustrates this deep desire for wanting to care for your family and wanting to make sure that they are safe. How do you keep your family alive and well and safe? There’s something about the family bond. These are people that you are connected to. But unlike just any regular person that you know, there’s something about this instinct to protect our family and to be there to care for them.

It taught me that family always has your best interest at heart and want to see you thriving, and as a result, they will be there to care for you the entire way because they know that it’s more than an obligation — it’s their duty to care for their family. There’s a selflessness when it comes to family; we all know when a family member needs our help, and we put their needs before our own to ensure that they are taken care of.

One thing that is important to Krasinski’s and Blunt’s characters is that their children learn how to care for themselves so they’ll be able survive in this post-apocalyptic world. Krasinski’s character takes his son, played by Noah Jupe, to the river to teach him how to fish. While there, Jupe’s character tell’s Krasinski’s that his sister, played by Millicent Simmonds, blames herself for giving their little brother the toy rocket (out of pity) the eventually led to his demise. To make  matters worse, he says that she thinks that the dad blames her for the youngest brother’s death since the dad appears to treat her differently (such as not allowing her to go on these fishing trips as well, especially because she is deaf which could potentially put them in danger). Jupe’s character lets their father know that his sister doesn’t feel loved by their dad, but their father says that he does not blame her at all for the younger brother’s death and does in fact love her. At that point, the son says that the father should tell her that he loves her.

This taught me that it is always important to let our loved ones know that we love them. Every day is a gift, not a given. Therefore, we always need to tell our loved ones that we care for them, because even though they may or may not be aware of it, we need to let them know before it is too late or we’ll never get the chance to let them know. It’s important that we always embrace our loved ones and share our love with them.

The last valuable lesson that I learned was that love means putting our loved one’s needs before our own and sacrificing our needs for them. Upon returning from their fishing trip, the father and son notice that the mother has pull the lever on their makeshift string of lights on their property — making the lights turn from white to red — to alert her family that there is danger. Figuring that there is a creature in there, the father tells the son to run to “the rockets,” and light up the fireworks to create a diversion (the creature will be distracted and go towards the louder sound, thus protecting the mom). The son, though scared, knows that he has to help his mom (who is currently going into labor in the movie), and runs off to set of “the rockets.”

Towards the end of the movie, Krasinski’s characters and the two children find themselves in the presence of one of those creatures. Wanting to protect his children, he tell them to go to this abandoned, old truck nearby and hide there. When the creature lunges at Kiranski’s character after he attempts to attack it, Kiranski’s character is wounded. The son yells out for his dad, and the creature hears and runs to the truck. In order to save his children, the dad signs to his children in American Sign Language that he loves them (adding that he has always loved them), and yells, sacrificing himself for his children so they can escape.

The scenes, among others, show that, in times of need, we put our family’s needs first. Because that is what love is all about. We sacrifice ourselves and our needs for them. And that’s exactly what this family does. Through their love for one another, they put each other first to make sure that they are safe, protected, and cared for.

So yes, I was a little scared when these creatures jumped out. But despite being scared, it reminded us all that love means putting other’s needs before our own and how our duty to care for our family, our selflessness, comes from our love for them. Lastly, A Quiet Place showed us just how important it is to always remind our loved ones of how much we love them, because every day isn’t guaranteed, and we need to tell them while we can. Even though this family had to live in silence to remain undetected, it was their love, sacrifice, and care for one another that were the lessons to leave with.