Bird Box
(2018)Don't open your eyes.
Oscar winner Sandra Bullock leads this post-apocalyptic horror directed by Susanne Bier (the first female director to win a Golden Globe, an Academy Award, an Emmy Award and a European Film Award) and based on Josh Malerman's acclaimed novel.... More
Following an unknown global catastrophe, a mother (Bullock) must flee with her children down a treacherous river in search of safety. But due to unseen deadly forces, the perilous journey must be made blindly.Hide
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Directed by Susanne Bier ('In a Better World', 'After the Wedding', 'Brothers')
Starring Sandra Bullock, Trevante Rhodes, Jacki Weaver, Rosa Salazar, Danielle Macdonald, LilRel Howery, Machine Gun Kelly, BD Wong
Written by Eric Heisserer (based on the novel of the same name by Josh Malerman)
Out Now (On-Demand,
DVD or Blu-Ray)
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Bird Box
BY arlomclean superstar
Bird Box kept me on the edge of my seat unlike any other film this year. Incredible direction and a great cast elevate this concept and give you a great film going experience.
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The Press Reviews
A wannabe shocker with a clever premise that doesn't really get down and dirty or betray the base instincts of a born horror filmmaker. Full Review
Bier's direction is coolly efficient, which fits the material to a t - anything more ostentatious would just feel wasteful. Full Review
With hints of "The Road," "A Quiet Place" and any number of zombie movies, this Netflix horror-thriller is appreciably bleak but also sluggish, never fully fleshing out the themes at the story's core. Full Review
Malerman and screenwriter Eric Heisserer... have served up an inexplicably bland ensemble that even a talented cast can't render interesting. Full Review
After such an amazing, awe-inspiring start, it's disappointing this thriller couldn't have thought a little more outside the box. Full Review
BY Aaron Yap Flicks Writer
Timing is everything when it comes to high concepts, and Bird Box, at its least inspired, arrives exactly like the steaming pile of leftovers one would expect Netflix to scoop up without hesitation. Its closest, unavoidably comparative antecedent, John Krasinski’s runaway monster-thriller hit A Quiet Place, rattled audiences with a gimmicky premise built around constraining its protagonists to a life of silence.... More
The similarly post-apocalyptic Bird Box, an adaptation of Josh Malerman’s 2014 novel, aims to do the same by depriving its characters of sight, as mystery-shrouded Lovecraftian forces descend upon Earth, causing anyone who sees them to commit suicide. If your déjà vu meter is heating up right now, it’s understandable. Bird Box is handicapped by evoking everything from The Happening to The Mist to Lost’s smoke monster. In places, it also unfolds like a more malevolent version of HBO’s The Leftovers.
Nevertheless, the hook is still irresistible, and you’d have to be utterly incompetent to completely screw it up. Susanne Bier (The Night Manager), far from a traditionally genre-leaning director, doesn’t realise the material’s full potential, sticking the landing insofar as mounting what is ultimately a big budget pilot for a show that doesn’t exist.
But beyond that, some tropey idiocy, and a shrilly written ensemble, Bird Box intermittently works. Bier ratchets up several crescendos of harrowing peril, allows our imagination to roam by keeping the true nature of the pandemic largely ambiguous, and finds in all the chaos, a serviceable vehicle for a resourceful and centred Sandra Bullock.Hide
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