To be honest, I was really shocked to my core when a couple of days ago, I went on Twitter and saw lots of very hilarious memes of Sandra Bullock and different scenes from the movie, Bird Box, which trended all over the world for more than two days. I was intrigued, curious, and did all I could to hop on Netflix and stream the movie (trust me, there was a particular telecoms company that didn’t want me to be great, but God pass dem).
Anyways, moving into the review itself, Bird Box is a natural movie. By natural, I mean that is has a lot of drama and just enough action and suspense to keep you at the edge of your seat, wondering, hoping, clenching your fists and even praying for better days for the people in the movie. I have come to expect nothing less from a Netflix original, which garnered over 45 million streams worldwide in its first day alone.
Sandra Bullock, the ever-graceful actress, was stunning in her role as one would expect. She found a way to effortlessly entrance you in her “blindness” and maternal instincts even though she had to act emotionless for the better part of the movie.
The movie was beautifully shot in a way that deserves commending. It wasn’t like there were many different locations or places in the movie, but the little they showed made it seem like that was the whole world at that moment, even though there weren’t more than seven houses and locations used in the whole movie.
Like every other post-apocalyptic movie like 2012, How it Ends, Resident Evil, and others, Bird Box wasn’t shy of finding a way to lace horror into the overall plot of the movie, as every whisper would have the hairs at the back of your neck standing up, and fear will naturally creep in while watching as your heartbeat increases and slows down as the pace of the movie dictates.
For everything that Bird Box is, the one thing it isn’t is original. The movie bore a very remarkable similarity to M. Night Shyamalan’s 2008 The Happening. In fact, the storyline was so similar, Bird Box could have easily passed as a sequel to the movie or a more fleshed out rendition of The Happening. Except for the fact that the lead character, in this case, is a female.
The children, the way the “demons” came in the form of wind, but couldn’t enter your house, the way many people killed themselves, and many other instances were all strikingly similar to The Happening.
Was it a coincidence or purposeful ‘exploitation’? I don’t know. But regardless, Bird Box is definitely a must-see movie and one that is worth the 2-hours it’ll take to watch it.
Bird Box is currently showing on Netflix.
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