This 110-Minute 'Quiet Place' Replacement Is a Streaming Smash

Published Sep 19, 2026, 8:05 AM EDT

Michael John Petty is a Senior Author for Collider who spends his days writing, in fellowship with his local church, and enjoying each new day with his wife and daughters. At Collider, he writes features, reviews, recaps, and conducts interviews. In addition to writing about stories, Michael has told a few of his own. His novella, The Beast of Bear-tooth Mountain, was released in 2023. His Western short story, The Devil's Left Hand, received the Spur Award for "Best Western Short Fiction" from the Western Writers of America in 2025. Michael currently resides in North Idaho with his growing family.

For those hoping to see more crossover between the neo-Western genre and post-apocalyptic survival flicks, head on over to Paramount+. Not only is the streamer the best outlet for modern horse operas these days, but its connection to Showtime means that it offers some additional content that would otherwise be difficult to find on digital platforms. The Neal McDonough-led feature Homestead is one such film that was just added to the streaming outlet, where it has found streaming success, trending at the #4 spot in the Top 10 Movies just this week — and fans have seemingly noticed.

'Homestead' Is the Beginning of A Larger Apocalyptic Narrative

Image via Angel Studios

If you haven't heard of Homestead, the Angel Studios-made feature — directed by Ben Smallbone — is based on the popular Black Autumn series of novels by Jeff Kirkham and Jason Ross. However, it doesn't take too long before the film departs from the source material. Homestead takes place largely in the immediate aftermath of a nuclear disaster; like in the short-lived CBS series Jericho, Los Angeles has been annihilated by a nuclear attack followed by a cyber assault on the U.S. power grid. With states and towns cut off from one another, and unable to unite against a common enemy, folks from all walks of life fight tooth and nail to simply survive. It's from this vantage point that Homestead begins, with Neal McDonough's wealthy doomsday prepper (and homestead owner) Ian Ross fighting to secure his resources from the desperate onlookers in his Rocky Mountain hometown. While Ross and his wife, Jenna (Yellowstone star Dawn Olivieri), believe that it's their God-given duty to help those they can, where they differ is in how much they ought to support the rest of the town before running out of resources for themselves.

This is where former Green Beret Jeff Ericksson (Bailey Chase of Longmire fame) comes in. Having been hired by Ross as the compound's security enforcer, Jeff struggles to maintain the peace with those who would forcibly take his resources. It's here that the main drama of Homestead presents itself, with conflicting opinions about how to proceed as everyone fights to survive in a world where the supply chain has crumbled, and the government has been seemingly wiped out almost overnight.

Homestead wrestles with these issues not just from a psychological or even a practical perspective, but from both a spiritual and philosophical one as well, bookended with plenty of action to keep the viewer engaged. As Angel Studios' first real pivot into the world of complex character dramas and mainstream survival fare, the film aims to appeal not to faith-based audiences but mainstream ones as well. Naturally, the cast alone demands one's attention.

'Homestead' Continues With a Streaming Series — Though Without Neal McDonough

Of course, where things get a bit strange is the way that Homestead ends. By the finale, viewers come to realize that this drama is less of a standalone survival thriller and more of a sales pitch for a long-form streaming series, Homestead: The Series. The first two episodes of the program — which sadly doesn't star McDononough but maintains the rest of the cast — were released simultaneously with the film back in 2024 on Angel Studios' own streaming platform. Eventually, the rest of the eight-episode season followed, and a second season has already been confirmed. To this end, Homestead doesn’t quite feel complete. It leaves you wanting more or wishing that the conclusion wasn't so open-ended. In truth, it may have been better for Homestead to simply be billed as an extended pilot episode of the Homestead television series, not unlike how Yellowstone's first episode "Daybreak" was feature-length despite being an episode of television.

What offers some interesting ideas and a complex intersection between survival and faith ultimately falls a little flat since it's only meant to be a pilot for a larger production. Still, if you can accept that going in, you may find that you enjoy Homestead for what it is (and will likely enjoy the continuation series as well), but if you’re looking for a one-and-done thriller that marries neo-Western aesthetics with the weight of nuclear war, there are better options out there. That said, you've got to give McDonough props, because his presence can elevate any project to its absolute best.

Homestead is available for streaming on Paramount+ with Showtime.

Homestead