Bird Box (2018)

Score: 4 / 5

It's become a bizarre cultural joke, but the new Netflix thriller Bird Box is a surprisingly effective post-apocalyptic sci-fi/horror blend that will make you think and weep, if it is short on scares.

Based on the Bram Stoker Award-winning novel by Michigander Josh Malerman, Bird Box imagines a future in which mysterious horrors prowl the earth provoking widespread death. "Provoking" is the key here because, much like in M. Night Shyamalan's The Happening, these monsters do not kill directly, instead somehow inspiring their victims to kill themselves. Their methodology is vague because they are so mysterious, and it would seem that one informs the other. If they are aliens, do they drive their victims insane? If they are demons, do they possess their prey? We're sure of one thing: seeing the monsters is the problem. The film actually suggests the monsters are invisible until you see them; those we would call mentally ill or insane can apparently see the "beautiful" beings and choose to worship them, carrying out their will by trying to get other survivors to see as well.

Speaking of the survivors, that's where we get the now-famous image of Sandra Bullock with two children, all of them blindfolded in a boat. Having survived five years in this chaotic world, she finds herself the lone parent for two children and desperate for help. After receiving a radio transmission from a community of survivors, she blindfolds herself and her children and takes off on a boat, rowing for two days through wilderness and rapids. The film splits its time between two narratives: one is here on the river, the other is five years prior, just after the world falls to these mysterious invaders and as Sandy B joins up with other survivors.

I was shocked at the number and caliber of star power here. Other than Bullock, we have Sarah Paulson, BD Wong, Jacki Weaver, John Malkovich, Tom Hollander, Rosa Salazar, Danielle Macdonald, and Trevante Rhodes. What? I know, it's pretty crazy. Add to that the talent behind the scenes: director Susanne Bier (The Night Manager, Things We Lost in the Fire), writer Eric Heisserer (Arrival, Lights Out), and frequent Ron Howard collaborator cinematographer Salvatore Totino (Spider-Man: Homecoming, Everest, Concussion). It all makes for a beautiful picture I rather wish had been released in theaters.

Having held off on this picture for a while due to overwhelmingly negative responses from friends who had seen it, I'm really glad I didn't let them talk me out of viewing. Perhaps they were upset because it's not a "scary" movie, or perhaps they wanted more action or something. I found Bird Box to be a lovely, if intimate, adventure through the heart of a wounded woman. Bullock's character is hardened by the world -- she's pregnant and does not want to be -- and the events of this plot force her to make a choice between remaining isolated and breaking open. The film is far more emotional than scary or creepy, and as she learns to find hope and love in unlikely places, you might shed a tear too.

As in the best science fiction, this film invites many layers of speculation and interpretation. If the monsters are alien, how do they know intimate details of the characters' pasts? If they're demons, why does the natural world react in such strange yet predictable ways to their presence? The picture will provoke discussions of insanity, art, motherhood, survival, religion, community; it's sparse enough to be a fairy tale and thrilling enough to be entertaining. In the end, we've experienced a journey toward hope. That's something we could all use a bit more of.

Plus, Trevante Rhodes is beautiful.