Bird Box finally dropped on Netflix this past weekend and the post-apocalyptic thriller already has a cult following of sorts online. In short, the Susanne Bier-helmed film follows Malorie Hayes (Sandra Bullock) as she tries to avoid death by the hand of mysterious monsters.
In a plot similar to The Happening or A Quiet Place, the monsters in the world of Bird Box drive people to commit suicide upon sight. Because of that, the character’s try moving around with blindfolds on so that they don’t lock eyes with the creatures.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Adapted from a novel of the same name by Josh Malerman, Bird Box is an original Netflix movie produced by Chris Morgan, Barbara Muschietti, Scott Stuber, Dylan Clark, and Clayton Townsend while the Oscar-nominated Eric Heisserer wrote the script.
As of this writing, critics and fans are responding somewhat similarly to the film. Bird Box currently has a 66% Fresh rating on the review-aggregating site Rotten Tomatoes while the audience score hovers around 75% with over a thousand user ratings accounted for.
Along with Bullock, Bird Box stars John Malkovich, Sarah Paulson, BD Wong, David Dastmachlchian, Trevante Rhodes, Danielle Macdonald, Julian Edwards, and Vivien Lyra Blair.
Keep scrolling to see what critics are saying about Bird Box.
Vulture
“You don’t appreciate the art of a good genre contrivance until you see one pulled off poorly. There is so much “stuff” thrown at us in the opening minutes of Bird Box — someone on a radio talking about a safe-house compound, two nameless children in blindfolds, and yes, those titular birds in that titular box — that one feels instantly alienated by the sheer force of the effect on display. All fiction asks us to care about invented events and stakes, but sometimes a film never manages to puff itself up into something bigger than the sum of its parts, like a meringue in a greasy bowl. And the more serious and downbeat and gray the proceedings, the further the mind wanders.”
You can read the full review here.
Washington Post
“But as these auspicious ingredients come together under filmmaker Susanne Bier, the Danish director of the Oscar-winning “In a Better World,” the dish never quite jells. The film essentially begins at its climax, and then backtracks, via flashback, to the onset of the crisis, hopping forward and back repeatedly over a five-year gap. This has the effect of destroying momentum.”
You can read the full review here.
Los Angeles Times
“I am glad to report that the movie itself, creepy and diverting enough on its own workmanlike terms, induces no such impulse. It could have, I suppose, but Bier is too much of a professional to drop a stray reel from “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” mid-picture. Instead, she applies herself — as does the screenwriter, Eric Heisserer (“Arrival”), adapting Josh Malerman’s 2014 debut novel — to the challenge of representing a horror that, in every sense, cannot be seen.”
You can read the full review here.
Detroit News
“It’s an intriguing premise, doing for sight what “A Quiet Place” did for sound earlier this year, but it peters out quickly, as this movie keeps walking into walls like it is blindfolded itself. A committed performance by Bullock ends up washing out, thanks to a jumbled script and a mismatched cast that never gels. “
You can read the full review here.
Den of Geek
“The depiction of the end-of-world event is particularly well done. Unrelenting and disturbing in its emotional impact, it reaches a horrific crescendo that balances the desolate desperation of the frame tale’s dystopia. The viewer iis never shown the horrors that those affected are wintessing. Instead we see only the horrific results as people behold their loved ones single-mindedly killing themselves. People can’t turn away… but they must if they have any hope at survival.”
You can read the review here.
IGN
“In a slightly better effort and presentation than most Netflix Original movies, Bird Box stars Sandra Bullock as one of the few survivors of a global “event” that – *sigh* – involves invisible demons instantly causing all who see them to commit suicide. Look, it’s all better than the description makes it sound. Though, this gimmick also feels goofy at times, and needlessly convolutes a story that, for all intents and purposes, could be about anything world-ending (zombies, clickers, what have you).”
You can read the full review here.
Empire
“Perhaps too hastily and unfairly dubbed as ‘A Quiet Place (but without sight)’ simply for having a vaguely similar high-concept premise, The Night Manager director Susanne Bier’s Bird Box presents a chilling and uncompromisingly dark post-apocalyptic narrative. Adapted from Josh Malerman’s 2014 novel of the same name, it’s a promising production which may ultimately suffer from failing to measure up tonally and thematically to John Krasinski’s game-changing horror narrative.”
You can read the full review here.
io9
“However, as directed by Susanne Bier (The Night Manager) and adapted by Eric Heisserer (Arrival), Bird Box doesn’t start at the beginning of the terror. The film opens five years after the apocalyptic events occur, as Malorie and two kids set off down a river to find what they think is salvation. However, obviously, they can’t look at anything. And so a woman and two small children get in a boat, blindfolded, desperately trying to float to hope in this terrifying, horrible world.”
You can read the full review here.
Rolling Stone
“Based on the bestseller by Josh Malerman, this adaptation teases us with monsters we never actually witness. Not because we’d all commit suicide if we did; more likely it’s because we wouldn’t be that scared. That’s the trap director Susanne Bier finds herself in. Working from script by Eric Heisserer (Arrival), the Danish Oscar winner for In a Better World needs to rely on the group dynamic among survivors to generate suspense. At that, she’s only partly successful.”
You can read the full review here.
/Film
“As Malorie and the children travel the river, Bird Box jumps back five years, introducing us to a completely different world. A world that looks much like our own. Malorie, who is single, is pregnant, and it’s clear she doesn’t want to keep the baby. Adoption is the likely next step, but before she can even begin to think about that, all hell breaks loose. While leaving a check-up with her sister (a woefully underused Sarah Paulson) in tow, chaos begins to reign. People begin acting out of their minds, inflicting self-harm upon themselves until they end up committing suicide. Something is triggering this madness.”
You can read the full review here.
