Sandra Bullock stars in “Bird Box.”

By Deshani Hendley

Netflix seeks to be one of the biggest producers of shows, and so they have been using many sources to create new shows and movies for their service. Novels have been a great source for movies for as long as movies have been around.

Bird Box, which was just released on Netflix, is taken from a 2014 novel by Josh Malerman. This post-apocalyptic novel was first published in England, but it quickly came to America.

The plot is about a woman who needs to get herself, and her children to safety, even though her enemy is invisible. It must have been a difficult movie to make, because it takes place in three different times and is told mostly through flashbacks.
The world of this movie is scary, with a monster that can create insanity as soon as anyone sees it. No one is immune and the world has fallen into chaos. The only defense is to keep your eyes shut and block out the world.

The plot is complicated when the protagonist Malorie (played by Sandra Bullock) has a child and takes charge of another child born the same day, but whose mother has died. She has two children in this scary world and has never let them outside. They have not seen anything in the outside world. She only calls them “boy” (Julian Edwards) and “girl” (Vivian Lyra Blair). While it was never made clear why she did this, the most likely explanation is that she doesn’t want to give the names to avoid some of the pain of losing them, because they are likely going to die. It is a horror movie after all.

The biggest complaint for this novel is the ending, where a weird kind of safety is realized, but it seems forced. There is no resolution and after the big ordeal, it seems like a little bit of a let down.

The mood of this movie is the best part and it is scary in many parts. The suspense keeps the viewer to the end and it is definitely worth the watch. Enjoy.