Checked out the new Netflix original horror flick Bird Box. This is a movie that’s being compared as an also-ran to the excellent A Quiet Place because one movie is about being very quiet around an invading alien force and the other is about not looking at the invading alien force. There is a similarity, but this flick is far more similar to the M. Night Shyamalan flick The Happening. Happily, this is better than The Happening… but that doesn’t take much.
Bird Box is about a mysterious invasion by a whatsit that does a somthing that causes people to become suicidal. The alien (or whatever it is) is conveniently invisible which is great for a low budget flick. The spirit or alien or babbadook or whatever makes itself known by an ominous breeze through the trees… so, yeah, just like The Happening.
Sandra Bullock stars and she’s the best thing in the flick by far. She’s playing a very cold, distant pregnant woman who doesn’t seem pleased at her condition, but in an abstract, analytical kind of way. She doesn’t want children and she considers the whole thing kind of a nuisance.
And that’s when the end of the world strikes. If you are ever out in the open without a blindfold, the mysterious and nebulous and vague creature/devil/alien/wind makes you see something and then you try to kill yourself. So everyone in the flick has to wear blindfolds, cover their windows, and not open the door until they are sure… well… I guess I’m not sure what.
The movie is deliberately vague about all this and that’s no doubt them turning a budgetary limitation into their plot. The movie needs to keep you in suspense over this set of circumstances and it does sometimes and not other times. The movie is not a particular success at what it’s trying to pull off. It’s not bad, but it is underwhelming and you can see its seems and limitations.
So, watch it for a good unusual turn from Sandra Bullock. Maybe for the apocalyptic end-of-the-world stuff as long as you can accept the movie on its own limitations. I’m not strongly recommending it… its a flawed but occasionally interesting film.
It’s been than the Happening! Put that on the poster!
Score: 74