Bird Box (2018)

Dave

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With this Neflix only released film, Netflix has come of age. Starring Sandra Bullock and John Malkovich. It had little pre-publicity that I'm aware of, but it has gone viral on social media since it was released a few days ago. If that was the plan then it has been cleverly achieved. I'm watching it right now and it is puzzling and genuinely frightening - a big contrast to the usual horror films made today that are just gory.

The film is split between two time frames. One is the start of the phenomena, an ominous unseen presence that drives most of society to suicide, seemingly the end of the world. The second is set five years later, when a mother and her two children make a desperate bid to reach safety.
 
I’ve not heard of this before. Sounds interesting though.
 
I found it a little slow in the centre. Not sure either about the jumping between the birth of the children and the later date. I would prefer a linear story. I'm still watching it and the phenomena has no explanation. Really, it is just a zombie apocalypse with blindfolds and a touch of Lost.

Edit: I didn't see the ending, but I didn't find it the great surprise others did.
 
With this Neflix only released film, Netflix has come of age. Starring Sandra Bullock and John Malkovich. It had little pre-publicity that I'm aware of, but it has gone viral on social media since it was released a few days ago. If that was the plan then it has been cleverly achieved. I'm watching it right now and it is puzzling and genuinely frightening - a big contrast to the usual horror films made today that are just gory.

The film is split between two time frames. One is the start of the phenomena, an ominous unseen presence that drives most of society to suicide, seemingly the end of the world. The second is set five years later, when a mother and her two children make a desperate bid to reach safety.

The opening sequence was brilliant. An instant hook. I agree that the middle was a bit hum-drum. It followed a well worn path for this genre. However Sandra Bullock's performance dragged the movie out of the mediocre into the very watchable.

I also would have liked some explanation behind the phenomena.
 
I also would have liked some explanation behind the phenomena.
There's no explanation in the book, either. The characters do not know why you go mad, and homicidal, when you see 'it' (whatever 'it' is), only that you do, so you must keep the blindfold on, unless you're indoors with curtains drawn, and know it's safe.

Not seen the film, but I read the book a couple of years ago - it did the rounds in my office. Well-written, but it left me feeling a bit underwhelmed, as it had the potential to be more. It could very well have been the right book at the wrong time for me, though. Might fire up Netflix for this.
 
There's a hardback novelisation by Josh Malerman to be released for Birdbox.
 
I've seen a lot of negative reviews for this movie, but I honestly liked it a lot. Don't get me wrong, the story is definitely shaky, especially at the beginning, and there is no explanation or any real resolution for anything. But it has a ton of suspense, pretty good acting and cinematography, and I genuinely cared about the characters (which I often don't with horror movies). If I hadn't been sitting on the floor while watching it, I would've been on the edge of my seat. I'd recommend it for that alone.
 
I've seen a lot of negative reviews for this movie, but I honestly liked it a lot. Don't get me wrong, the story is definitely shaky, especially at the beginning, and there is no explanation or any real resolution for anything. But it has a ton of suspense, pretty good acting and cinematography, and I genuinely cared about the characters (which I often don't with horror movies). If I hadn't been sitting on the floor while watching it, I would've been on the edge of my seat. I'd recommend it for that alone.
Welcome to Chronicles, and I think (here at least) everyone has agreed with you so far. I think the negative reviews were just one side of the kind of reaction you get with social media. No one goes on Twitter or Facebook to say that anything was "just about okay" or "mediocre." As I said, this film has genuinely scary scenes with believable characters who were well acted, and that is a world away from the usual teenage-slasher-gore films that come in this genre.

My problems were with the lack of explanation of the "phenomena" and The Village ending.
 

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