The Death Angels, often referred to simply as "The Creatures" by survivors, are a race of extraterrestrial creatures who serve as the primary antagonists in A Quiet Place and A Quiet Place: Part II. They arrived on Earth, referred to as an invasion by humans, inside a meteorite and emerged to begin their slaughter.
Biology
According to John Krasinkski, the director of the movies, the creatures originated on a lightless planet in a far away galaxy, a hell world with much harsher conditions and higher gravity than Earth. This pushed their evolution to to develop features such as relying on sound instead of sight, possessing impenetrably hard armor, and greater strength in Earth's gravity. Their armor is so tough it can resist all conventional human weaponry, from small arms to missiles. Due to the tradeoffs of these features, however, they are completely blind - and their dense armor and musculature is so heavy that they cannot swim in water.
The creatures are slightly taller than a human, with overall proportions that are lithe and lean. Their body posture vaguely resembles a cross between a gorilla and a flightless bat: all four of their limbs are digitigrade, walking on their knuckles, with arms drastically larger than their legs - resulting in them usually running on all four limbs but capable of rearing up to attack or jump large distances. Due to their claws and great strength they are very adept at climbing on walls.
Their head features a large jaw filled with sharp teeth, and no eyes. With no apparent nose, it is unclear if they possess a sense of smell, or if this is perhaps achieved through sense organs in the mouth. The entire head is actually composed of multiple sections of armor plates that can be held open if they want to listen more closely for prey - unfolding like a hellish cabbage. The delicate ears underneath the armor are vulnerable to conventional weapons, explaining why they only briefly lift their plates if they feel they are safe and tracking an unseen enemy.
Their extremely sensitive hearing can be turned into a weakness, as Regan discovered that their ears are so delicate that high-frequency sound waves (generated from a hearing aid) will make them uncontrollably squeal in pain and spasm, accidentally opening up the armor plates on their ears and exposing the vulnerable skin underneath. If the high-pitched noises got louder, they could get to the point where they temporarily collapsed from the pain.
As confirmed by Krasinksi, the aliens are not sapient, but vicious animals. Just how intelligent they are is unclear, as they mostly seem driven by pure instinct, though the Abbotts' whiteboard speculates that they are capable of hunting in packs.
History
Pre-Series
At some point the creatures' planet was destroyed for unknown reasons, but due to their durable nature they survived on asteroid fragments, which eventually arrived on Earth in a meteor shower.
A Quiet Place
The Death Angels are responsible for Beau's death at the beginning of the film. They are also seen hunting in the Abbott household when Evelyn's water breaks and she accidentally stabs her foot with a nail in the basement stairs. A Death Angel was nearing towards Evelyn in the bathroom when she was about the give birth to her son, but was distracted away because of Marcus settting off a firework. Lee's death was at the claws of a Death Angel, albeit it was to protect Regan and Marcus to help Evelyn. A Death Angel was shown in the finale when their weakness, high-pitched frequency waves, was shown.
A Quiet Place Part II
In the opening scene, Death Angels are seen slaughtering the inhabitants of a New York town on the first day they landed on Earth by a meteor. During the attack, one of them attacked a police car of a local officer, then another landed and destroyed a station wagon, and another killed a driver of a bus which attempted to ram over Evelyn, Marcus, and Beau though they were able to avoid it. In the ensuing chaos, a Death Angel was able to continue rampaging the town killing a few inhabitants, just as Lee, Regan, and most of the inhabitants went to a nearby bar to avoid being killed. They hid in tables and tried to stay silent as possible, as Lee tried to silence a man, but a teenage couple's phone accidentally rings, alerting the Death Angel and killing a few people in the bar just as Lee and Regan escaped the bar with the Death Angel pursuing them. As Lee and Regan approach the damaged police car where Evelyn, Beau and Marcus are hiding, the Death Angel tries to kill them but Ronnie, the local police officer saves them by trying to shoot at the creature. Despite his best efforts, the shots are no match for the creatures impenetrable armor and the officer decides to sacrifice himself to save the family.
In the present, a Death Angel was shown chasing the Abbott family and Emmett when Evelyn accidentally set off Emmet's booby trap and Marcus gets his foot severely injured in a bear trap at his base, an abandoned factory. A Death Angel was shown hunting Regan when she encountered an abandoned train, where it attempts to kill her. Regan uses her high frequency feedback to disorient the alien along with her shotgun, though it is only able to damage the creature. The creature tries to kill Regan, but she was saved by Emmett. When Regan and Emmett are confronted by a group of feral humans while searching for a boat on the docks, Emmett makes noise that attracts two Death Angels where they slaughter the deranged inhabitants. Emmett then stabs the leader with a knife to allow the creature to kill him before jumping off to avoid being killed. The Death Angel hopped on a boat and killed more humans but later drowned as it jumped on the water, while the other got into the same boat. A Death Angel got into Emmett's base, and Marcus and his brother accidentally trapped themselves in a furnace-turned-bunker, nearly suffocating them. A Death Angel snuck onto the island after Emmett and Regan escaped a group of people living in abandoned boats at some docks.
Trivia
- The aliens don't have an official name: "Death Angels" comes from a headline that appears on the Abbott family's wall of newspaper clippings.
- The Death Angels are unable to swim and quickly drown when they are in deep water.
- John Krasinski provided some motion capture for the Death Angels in the films.
- The design of the Death Angels was inspired by bog people, corpses who are buried in swamp peat. Additonally, the CGI for the Death Angels was done by Industrial Light and Magic (ILM).
- The design of the Death Angels were created by A Quiet Place's special effects supervisor Scott Farrar.