Stephen King Praises Netflix’s ‘Bird Box’, Says Don’t Believe Lukewarm Reviews

If you’re a Twitter user, you know that nothing is catching the attention of the Internet this week quite like Netflix’s Bird Box. The new horror film is the subject of countless memes, discussions, and even celebrity praise.

The most recent famous person to compliment the new movie is Stephen King, who is pretty much the number one person you want to be in favor of your horror film.

“I was absolutely riveted by BIRD BOX (Netflix),” King wrote. “Don’t believe the lukewarm reviews, which may in part have been caused by reviewers’ ambivalence to the streaming platform, as opposed to theatrical releases.”

King has written countless horror classics, including The Shining, It, Carrie, Pet Sematary, and Misery, so his positive review should not be taken for granted.

While it is true that critics have found it difficult to sing the praises of a straight-to-stream movie, Bird Box is doing pretty well despite the mixed reviews.

Currently, the movie has a 66% rating on Rotten Tomatoes with a 75% audience score. While this doesn’t quite match up to other Netflix film successes such as the Coen Brothers‘ The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (92% critic rating, 77% audience rating) and Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma (96% critic rating, 83% audience rating), it’s still a pretty impressive score for a Netflix film.

There have been an array of varying reviews for Bird Box, some of which you can read here.

Bird Box follows Malorie (Sandra Bullock) as she embarks on a dangerous river adventure with her two children in hopes of finding a safe haven from the mysterious entity that causes people to kill themselves when they see it. The film flashes back and forth between the present and five years earlier, when the epidemic breaks out and forces Malorie to hold up in a house with a group of strangers.

While the movie has been compared to John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place, it definitely takes its own unique path into the world of disturbing horror. The film features a great supporting cast, including John Malkovich, Trevante Rhodes, Sarah Paulson, BD Wong, Lil Rel Howery, Danielle Macdonald, Rosa Salazar, Jacki Weaver, Machine Gun Kelly, Tom Hollander, Julian Edwards, and Vivien Lyra Blair.

Bird Box is currently streaming on Netflix.