I was hoping for some toss-off amusement and mindless time-killing at best with Bird Box, the new Sandra Bullock end of the world thriller directed by Susanne Bier (“In a Better World”) released onto Netflix. It’s got holes, and it’s high-concept nonsense on the outset, but to my surprise it’s quivering and jolting fun. It might be irrational that I fell for it, but it doesn’t take away from the truth I found it exciting.
The alien entities have either come to Earth or they are supernatural entities that have risen from below the Earth. Every person that locks eyes with these unseen monsters are driven instantly to kill themselves. Things get hysterical quite quickly, with mass suicides taking place left and right, and in rear view mirror shots. Bullock, the single mother heroine, joins a bunch of neighbors in a fairly high-tech house that is made as refuge. News channels soon go silent. Guns are only useful against human invaders. Most of them die out. Then the food rations run out. So going out shopping blindfold is the only answer to evade contact with the monsters. Blindfolding works.
“Bird Box” is cut into two time periods. What I’ve described is “Five Years Ago.” In the present, Bullock has two children she is attempting to escort down a very long river that she it told will probably be a 24 hour journey. It goes well beyond that number. So the film goes back and forth between two periods, and slowly, the rules of survival are made clearer about what took place during the Apocalypse and the now that is taking place on the river. Bullock is a damn good blindfold actress. There are other sneaky good performances here, too (Sarah Paulson, John Malkovich, Trevante Rhodes, Danielle McDonald). And indeed the movie is quivered nerves suspenseful, and here’s a successful case where the less we see the more suspenseful it plays. I even liked the final destination, except it is unexplained how long that could possibly last.
124 Minutes. Unrated.
HORROR THRILLER / DOOMSDAY ADDICTS / LATE NIGHT CHILLS
Film Cousins: “The Mist” (2007); “I Am Legend” (2007); “Cell” (2016); “A Quiet Place” (2018).
