Bird Box is an upcoming Netflix film based on the 2014 novel of the same name. The book is extremely creepy – it’s one of those novels that gets under your skin and stays put – and the film looks to follow suit, judging by the first trailer. Check it out below:
There is a whole lot of uncomfortable looking stuff going on there. Let’s break down Bird Box.
The novel was released in 2014 and was written by Josh Malerman, lead singer of The High Strung. Don’t think it’s just some lame vanity project put together in a musician’s spare time, however: Bird Box is incredibly tense and well put-together. The movie looks to deviate a bit from some of the specifics of the novel, but overall looks to strike a similar, unsettling tone.
Bird Box jumps between three different time periods: the start of “The Problem,” the birth of the main character’s children, and the present day, when the world has fallen apart. The central conflict centers around an unknown invasion by creatures that drive anyone who sees them to a suicide-inducing insanity. Because of this, anyone who wants a to survive has learned to function without their eyesight – it’s why so many characters are wearing blindfolds through much of the trailer.
The main character of Bird Box, Malorie (played by Sandra Bullock), has had to raise her children in this terrifying world, training them to function without their sense of sight. As the unseen assailants close in on their attempt at a safe haven, Malorie and her children are forced to make some tough decisions about how to survive (and whether it’s worth it) in a world that’s fallen apart.
With an all star cast including Bullock, Sarah Paulson, John Malkovich, and BD Wong, direction from Susanne Bier (Serena, Things We Lost in the Fire), and excellent source material to draw from, Bird Box looks like it’s shaping up to be a good one for Netflix. It’s sure to drawn comparisons to another recent horror darling: A Quiet Place. It is scheduled to release to the streaming network on December 21, 2018.
