Bird Box

A creature that hunts(?) or curses(?) their victims when they’re looked upon. It sounds interesting, the trailer of Bird Box looked great as well. Directed by Susanne Bier who is mostly known to direct drama films, I’m not really sure if she had directed a horror movie ever, and we see that here. A good effort though. It is based on the novel of the same name, written by Josh Malerman.

Bird Box is about a race of alien species(?) that when looked at, the victim will commit suicide, one way or the other, they won’t stop until they’re dead. The movie focuses on the struggles of a single mother with two children, trying to find their way to the supposed “sanctuary” that they heard through radio communication.

Characters

Sandra Bullock’s performance in Bird Box was great, not the best though, honestly I enjoyed Jessica’s (the sister, played by Sarah Paulson) performance more, even with that little screen time she had. Bullock isn’t known to play a character in horror films, and she admitted that she’s really not that into acting in one, hence the outcome. Her face of terror couldn’t penetrate the screen and to the audience, unfortunately it was very underwhelming.
Supporting characters were okay as well, nothing notable. Though Gary (played by Tom Hollander) was great, he’s the random passerby that’s part of the cult(?) in the movie.

Movie and book difference

The movie adaptation of Bird Box did not do the book justice, many things were changed and made the movie “friendlier”. Notable changes were:

• In the movie, Malorie’s sister is named Jess, while in the book, her name is Shannon. In the movie, Jess sees the creatures and kills herself after a car crash while driving her sister. In the book, we learn more about her. She and Malorie lock themselves in their apartment for months, but one day she accidentally sees one of the creatures and ends up taking her own life in the bathroom.
• The book gives more details about it and how it affects things. Well, the movie is only two hours long.
• In the movie, Tom (played by Trevante Rhodes) is mostly Malorie’s love interest and helps her take care of the kids. In the book, there’s no romance, and he dies before the children are born. However, he has a bigger role before that—he’s the leader of their group of survivors.
• The book doesn’t have the scene from the movie where Malorie and her kids go through wild rapids to reach the sanctuary.
• In the book, unlike the movie, Malorie’s kids are blindfolded from birth, which helps their other senses become stronger, and they never take off their blindfolds.
• The ending in the book is much darker. Malorie and her kids find a community of people who chose to gouge their eyes out to protect themselves permanently from the creatures. In the movie, the ending is less grim; Malorie and her kids reach the Jane Tucker School for the Blind, where some people can see. The title, Bird Box, came out of the supposed “sanctuary” where they found refuge.

So many unanswered questions

These changes tamed the movie and ultimately made it dull. As you’ve seen, I have many “(?)” because there are still so many questions left unanswered.
– What are those creatures?
– Where did they come from?
– Why can’t they go through doors/windows even though they can physically knock people down?
The movie instantly puts everyone in the middle of the crisis with no intention of telling what/how/why its happening, the movie ends and most of the audience go home scratching their heads. The premise goes “Five years after an ominous unseen presence…” up to this day, we still don’t know what the heck those were.

Conclusion

Bird Box would’ve been a great horror movie, the premise was promising, the source material was great, everything got beaten down by a drama genre director, a mediocre script, and subpar performance from the cast. I guess I expected too much from it.