With a bit of suspense, blindfolds, and a challenging trip down the river, “Bird Box” puts Netflix in the horror movies business.
“Bird Box” is based on a novel by Josh Malerman. This movie has become an unstoppable success quickly.
Directed by Emmy winner Susanne Bier, “Bird Box” brings to the audience an apocalyptic horror experience during the beginning of global terror caused by mysterious “evil forces.” Any eye contact made with the “things” lead people to a self-destructive behavior, such as suicide. The only certainty is if you see them, you will die.
The movie begins with the story of Malorie Hayes, played by Sandra Bullock, who is blindly journeying down to a dangerous river hoping to find a safe place for her children (boy, played by Julian Edwards, and girl, played by Vivien Lyra Blair). There are flashbacks throughout the movie that show how they got to the river.
Malorie is a young, talented artist who is having a tough time with feeling connected with her future role as a mother, in the middle of this chaos. During a visit to the doctor, Malorie and her sister, Jessica Hayes, played by Sarah Paulson, find themselves trying to escape uncontrolled violence in the city and the numerous car accidents that occur after they leave the hospital.
After a violent accident, Malorie finds herself very disoriented in the middle of a crowd of people running. With the help of Tom, played by Trevant Rhodes, they are able to get to a house that is among the few safer places to stay. Inside the house, Malorie and Tom meet with a group of survivors who are trying to keep themselves alive. Following this moment, the focus then shifts to the hard life struggles that Malorie is going through that has pushed her to the edge and into a survival mode.
To some, “Bird Box” may seen similar to the movie“A Quiet Place,” because the things are using one of the senses to hurt people. In this case, they use sight. The idea of these monsters only being able to hurt you if you can see them makes the audience think of the similarities of the two movies.
Something that really got my attention in the movie is how you can see Malorie grow and change. The production of the movie was well done, as they have done a great job of developing this transition of the main character facing this conflict and overcoming her inability to love and connect.
The action and chills that are presented in the movie are introduced by the macabre way that people commit these suicides. Also, I especially was quite interested that the mysterious things (aka. Evil forces) are not visualized in the movies, which became more interesting in the idea of how they become your worst fear, though they are not seen.
A couple things the movie makers could have done better was if they presented more jump scare moments. At the same time, it is still satisfying the audience with the suspense and chilling tension that is built up during the movie.
Overall, “Bird Box” is a pretty engaging movie with a very direct presentation of the story and the development of the characters.
I give “Bird Box” 7 out of 10.
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