Bird Box

Netflix

Sandra Bullock, John Malcovich,

Trevante Rhodes, Jacki Weaver

"Never lose Sight of Survival"

My first post in 2019 tackles a genre which I rarely watch - horror movies. But a controversial meme where people mimic the characters in Bird Box got me curious so watch, I did. I log in to my rarely used Netflix account and try to absorb the narrative without the need to close my eyes because I scare, easily.

Malorie (Sandra Bullock) is a pregnant artist/painter who isn't really the maternal type.  Her sister Jessica (Sarah Paulson) drives them home after a pre-natal check up. Suddenly Jessica acts weird, starts calling out for their mom, runs out of the car and straight into the path of an incoming truck. 

The stage is set for this post apocalyptic world where the key to survival is to blindfold your eyes when you go out to avoid seeing some strange force which makes you kill yourself.

After sharing a house with some strangers who eventually turn on each other, Malorie decides to venture out with two young kids (one of them is her now 5 year old son) to a sanctuary. The only problem is they need to take a small boat and navigate perilous waters on a lake to reach it, blindfolded. The vital ingredient on the boat is a tiny box with two small birds thus Bird Box. Apparently, birds can sense them and would chirp incessantly to signal the presence of these mysteriously deadly 'forces'.

Aside from gory scenes of chaos and people killing themselves, the tone of the movie was not a.there.is.a.monster.killing.humans type of scary. It was mostly psychological as they are dealing with something which nobody understands what triggered it nor how long it would last and why it is spreading throughout the entire universe. There were several scenes which were dragging. A couple of jaw dropping intense sequences on the lake when they reach the shooting rapids. A far fetched scenario to say the least, as she had to course through it, blindfolded. 

Bird Box had mostly tolerable scenarios with only a few engaging parts. No clear answers are provided and this truly disappointed my curiosity. Except for some gory scenes of mayhem, it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be so I know I won't have any nightmares to interrupt my sleep, tonight.