A Quiet Place 2 was recently released into cinemas (Picture: Paramount)
While A Quiet Place 2 has been praised for its representation of deafness, a deaf children’s charity has called out the lack of subtitled screenings across the UK.
The John Krasinksi film stars deaf actress Millicent Simmonds, shows her character Regan’s deafness as a major strength, and sees almost all the characters communicating in sign language – but deaf fans have still been unable to watch and enjoy the film due to the lack of subtitled screenings.
In the UK, there are 11million deaf or hard of hearing people.
However, according to a report by the National Deaf Children’s Society, just 41% of UK cinemas offered subtitled screenings during the show’s opening week. Around half were before 6pm, with just a handful at the weekend.
Beccy Forrow, Campaign Lead at the National Deaf Children’s Society, explained: ‘Deaf people are just as entitled to enjoy the thrill of the cinema as hearing people, but they’re still not being provided for.
‘Half of cinemas didn’t provide any subtitled showings and those that did were unwilling to offer them at convenient times. It’s a sad yet familiar story for millions of deaf people across the UK, where subtitles are now a holy grail instead of something they can rely on.
‘Cinemas have no doubt struggled during the pandemic, but increasing the number of subtitled showings could actually attract a brand new group of customers.