The internet was blown away after Susanne Bier’s Netflix Original “Bird Box” came to the streaming platform. Over 26 million people watched Bird Box within its first week of release, standing right below Stranger Things 2, which stood at a steady 27 million viewers.
Bird Box follows a mother figure who is trying to keep her two children alive in a wake of a global epidemic. The entire world has turned to committing suicide after being exposed to some sort of invisible entity. The mother, played by veteran actress Sandra Bullock, brings her children onto a boat to reach a safe-haven from the unknown, murderous entity.
In the beginning of the movie, the audience is introduced to a group of survivors, consisting of unique and intricate personalities, which tend to clash with each other throughout the two-hour film. My favorite character had to be Douglas, played by John Malkovich, because I’m almost certain I’ve never hated anyone more than him, which goes to show the talent he possesses as an actor.
Compared to the majority of Netflix Originals, Bird Box was for the most part an entertaining movie to watch. Being limited to a specific setting for the film, they were able to make it interesting for all the time they spent in Douglas’ home. And when it started to get bland, the film quickly changed the setting. The first 20 minutes of the movie had to be my favorite out of the Bird Box’s 124 minute run time. It was chaotic, it built up a significant level of suspense and mystery, not to mention the perfectly crafted camera work of having events going on out of frame.
The movie’s entire plot of not removing a blindfold from their eyes turned into a viral trend, having Twitter users posting challenges of them doing everyday challenges with a blindfold on. The challenge became so popular and dangerous that Netflix’s verified Twitter account prohibited and recommended users to not participate in the challenge.
Bird Box was meant to be an entertainment film, hence why millions of people rushed to see it on Netflix. The movie didn’t have any defiance towards the horror or apocalyptic genre; it had a shaky plot where it left the audience having more questions than answers. I wasn’t disappointed by this because that’s the majority of “mainstream” and “popular” movies, but I’m still very happy to have seen it.
Everyone could agree that Bird Box was simply too long of a movie to stay interested. Even in post- production, I couldn’t begin to imagine how long the movie was seen as “ideal”. With the jump scares being scattered scarcely, I simply felt too comfortable with the movie. A movie labeled under the “horror” genre shouldn’t make me feel comfortable about not being scared.
I would give Bird Box a steady 6/10.