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So, saw Bird Box and was honestly not impressed with it. It felt better than The Happening but not by much.
I felt it just was lacking something more to make it better.


But I want to know did you like it?

I am only aware of this film's existence because Facebook lit up with Birdbox memes this morning, and I can't stop laughing.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
I am only aware of this film's existence because Facebook lit up with Birdbox memes this morning, and I can't stop laughing.

Oh gawd, yes! The memes are hilarious and probably the best thing to come from this movie.

I voted no, but I didn’t feel like I was insulted or that it was a waste of time. Had I paid money to see it, I’d probably be a bit more negative.

The movie felt uneven, is the best way I can put it. The Netflix hype machine was at full steam for this movie and I don’t think it deserved the amount of hype it got. This is the prototypical 2.5 of 5 movie.

I've read some mixed reviews.

The premise sounds intriguing but as it's only available on NetFlix I will never see it although I would like to.

I thought it was pretty good, although I did like the book better. They made some strange choices adapting it.

I fell for the Hill House hype. Not gonna fall for this one.

It wasn't terrible. But it just felt unoriginal, the characters, the whole camera style and scenes were bland.

I have heard that the book is really good, and I can see why. The whole story is very cool.

Yeah, not great, a bit too long, but not bad neither. Fortunately, I knew before seing the movie that the monsters are never to be seen so I wasn't disappointed

I found this film to be a really shameless and very shallow attempt to create something like A Quiet Place.

Having seen it, I'd rather just watch A Quiet Place a second time.

was passable holiday viewing but felt like a overstretched Outer Limits / Twiglet Zone episode

I was going to watch it, but then saw some articles where the people who made it were claiming it's a heavy political metaphor for bla bla bla....pass.

I don't need pedantic political messages in every fething film I watch.

So we had Speak No Evil, now we have See No Evil, how long till they complete the trifecta?

While overall I liked Quiet Place better, I did like that this movie didn’t try to explain the monsters. Also I figured early on that we wouldn’t get to see them because nothing they could show us could live up to the expectations the movie put on them.

Watched it last night.

Concept? I really, really liked. And individually, the scenes are well acted, well shot with reasonable tension.

BUT. Ultimately, I feel this would've worked better a say, an Out Limits or Twilight Zone type affair. Reduce that run time. Remove the padding. Reorder to remove the flashbacks, and let it run in chronological order.

I don't regret watching it in the way I do, say, Justice League or Blair Witch Project. But I do feel it was a waste of a decent premise overall.

I'm reading the book at the moment, because it was only 99p on Kindle.

 AduroT wrote:
So we had Speak No Evil, now we have See No Evil, how long till they complete the trifecta?

That part came out first (2016). Check out "Hush" to complete the trifecta, although its got a bit of the "speak no evil" built into in the main character who is deaf/mute due to meningitis or some such. Its home invasion horror instead of monster horror though.

Just finished reading the book.

I didn't like it that much at first, but it grew on me and by the end I really enjoyed it and think it's a well written story.

Just saw the movie and really liked it. Maybe it’s my own bias but I feel what was happening had much more of a Lovecraftian vibe about it than anything based in real world religion, which seems to be the popular take away. I’d give it a 7/10.

The premise was pretty good and the acting was much better than expected.

I felt let down that we didn't see the creatures themselves or ways to combat it.

Is it just me, or is everyone skirting around the fact that Bullock's face looks like Michael J's just prior to his death?

On edit: No, I didn't like it.

 whembly wrote:
The premise was pretty good and the acting was much better than expected.

I felt let down that we didn't see the creatures themselves or ways to combat it.

The message of the movie was pretty demoralizing in the sense that there is not supposed to be a way to combat it. You just have to put on your blinders and spend the rest of your life staying out of any space it can occupy and doing your best never to confront it in any way. You could say that the creature is some kind of horrible truth; those who confront it either lose the will to live or become fanatically dedicated to revealing the truth to others, and the only sure way to survive is to never confront or gaze upon the truth at all. So the way I read the movie is that dangerous truths are better left unseen.

The filmmakers did start work on showing the creatures, but they looked so ridiculous they abandoned that. As the creatures were (possibly) showing people their greatest fears, they manifested for the protagonist as hideous baby things, and they looked utterly terrible.


I think not showing the creatures, or whatever it might be, was the right thing to do. It's simply an unknowable thing. If some semi-intelligent bacterium enters a probe we send out to deep space, and somehow gets into a storage container for a toxic fuel and cause them to go insane, will they think that this unknowable thing represents their greatest fear, or some kind of test for their kind?

Whatever they or it is, it's not not within our current framework of understanding, possibly not even malicious; and implied horror is pretty much always more effective than shown horror.

 Luciferian wrote:

 whembly wrote:
The premise was pretty good and the acting was much better than expected.

I felt let down that we didn't see the creatures themselves or ways to combat it.

The message of the movie was pretty demoralizing in the sense that there is not supposed to be a way to combat it. You just have to put on your blinders and spend the rest of your life staying out of any space it can occupy and doing your best never to confront it in any way. You could say that the creature is some kind of horrible truth; those who confront it either lose the will to live or become fanatically dedicated to revealing the truth to others, and the only sure way to survive is to never confront or gaze upon the truth at all. So the way I read the movie is that dangerous truths are better left unseen.

So the monster was Facebook?

I saw it. It was just OK. Have not read the book. I might have liked it better if I had not seen The Happening previously. Though I like the fan theory that The Happening wasn't really about 'omg killer trees' at all but just about people going crazy, mass hysteria, etc. With that in mind, I almost wish that the movie hadn't even hinted that there might actually be monsters. People going crazy in different ways when exposed to <plot device> is more interesting in a way. Or maybe the pictures were just what that one guy saw in his mind.

I thought it was ok. Not good, but not so bad. The acting was competant. The scenario was ok, but it was seldom scarry or really suspensefull. It was better then a A Quiet Place in my opinion since this one had too mch plot-holes for my liking.

I’m very glad they did not reveal the entities or show any hope of overcoming them. That’s what I mean about the Lovecraftian vibe. You don’t know what they are and all you do know is that you are without hope. To paraphrase the man himself; The oldest and greatest Human emotion is fear, and the oldest and greatest fear is fear of the unknown.

 Nostromodamus wrote:
I’m very glad they did not reveal the entities or show any hope of overcoming them. That’s what I mean about the Lovecraftian vibe. You don’t know what they are and all you do know is that you are without hope. To paraphrase the man himself; The oldest and greatest Human emotion is fear, and the oldest and greatest fear is fear of the unknown.

That fits with my interpretation as well. Some things are better left unknown - which really sucks when one of those things is just hanging around outside waiting to reveal itself to you.

A lot of inconsistencies but overall a decent and entertaining movie to pass the time.

Shortly into it I decided they were never going to show us the creatures. Nothing they could possibly put on screen could live up to the hype of so horrifying to instantly commit suicide.

Otherwise the creatures are interesting. They did seem to actively pursue people in the open, and had a physical mass, but apparently have trouble with doors? Or even just glass windows? Also they’re really tall or can maybe fly/float as they can be seen looking straight out a second floor window, but still fit thru a normal sized door (if it’s left open for them).

The movie was alright, I didn't think it was terrible or anything by any means. I thought A Quiet Place was much better. I fully agree with everyone saying it was better not to show the creatures in the film. Your imagination will conjure up something far more terrifying than whatever CGI abomination they would have put in its place.

In the book the creatures seem to have a physical presence, but they are gentle, in the sense that they do not smash through windows and doors, they only come into a house if the door is open and they only lightly physically interact with humans. For instance, in the boat, a creature pulls gently at Malorie's blindfold, but backs off when she says, "Leave it, it's mine."