Rating of
2.5/4
"Bird Box" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 12/18/19
A mother and two children are forced to undergo a treacherous journey in a post-apocalyptic world stalked by a malevolent presence the sight of which causes hysteria and suicide.
The concept of Bird Box is very similar to that of M. Night Shyamalan misfire The Happening from 10 years previously; namely the premise that an unseen enemy causes the human race to exterminate itself through mass suicide. Bird Box adds to the idea in that the survivors must navigate the world blindfolded to avoid its effects and this makes for some suitably tense scenes as their enemy is not only unseen, but literally must not be seen. The earlier scenes when mass hysteria break out are very well done and the cast of survivors holed up together in desperation is reminiscent of the original Romero zombie films – as all of this type of post-apocalyptic tales invariably are. The cast are all solid and it’s well engineered on a technical level, but the best sci-fi/horrors contain some kind of social commentary or allegory that’s lacking in Bird Box, making it all seem ultimately rather pointless. The fact that the nature or origin of the phenomenon is never satisfyingly explained adds to this feeling.
Reasonably entertaining for fans of the genre, but the subject of unwanted motherhood is explored with a horror twist in The Babadook with rather more success.
