The spontaneous suicides (including a series of intentionally provoked car accidents) elicit a quick chill. The script, written by Eric Heisserer, ranked at the top of the 2014 “Blood List” of best unproduced horror screenplays, and it’s a satisfyingly high-concept contrivance. “Bird Box,” directed by Susanne Bier, is based on a novel by Josh Malerman. (They turn out to be, in effect, mineshaft canaries-reliable heralds of danger.)
The group’s struggle to survive is interwoven with the struggles in the wild faced by Malorie and the children-and by a trio of birds that she has packed into a box to join them on the journey. Bullock and Rhodes play Malorie and Tom, two of a handful of survivors holed up in a house in Sacramento, while mayhem prevails outside. The only way to stay safe is not to see at all. It turns out that what drives people to instantaneous self-destruction is seeing a certain thing, which first manifested itself in Eastern Europe and Russia, and quickly turns up in the United States. The trio’s river journey is intercut with flashbacks showing how they got there.
The movie, which co-stars Trevante Rhodes, is an apocalyptic horror film in which the end of the world comes in the form of mass suicide. The three of them enter a rowboat and Malorie, also blindfolded, sightlessly guides the boat downriver. Its proof can be found on Netflix, in the form of “Bird Box.” Sandra Bullock stars as Malorie, a woman who is first seen sternly exhorting two young children, a girl and a boy, never to remove their blindfolds. A family saying has come down through the generations: for free, even vinegar would taste sweet.
0 kommentar(er)
