Ten years ago I posted a review of the execrable movie “The Happening.” It was just so very, very wrong on every level. Today I watched a movie that is quite similar in basic concept, yet is infinitely superior: “The Bird Box,” now out on Netflix.
What both flicks share: there is a mysterious force that is causing people to suddenly suicide themselves to death, and the characters are not the Great Heroes who figure out the thing and solve the problem, but rather are just schmoes trying to survive. But one of the great flaws of “The Happening” is avoided by “The Bird Box:” there’s no explanation made. In TH, the insultingly stupid explanation is that plants are annoyed with humanities hijinks and have spontaneously evolved the ability to emit a Suicide Gas. In TBB, there are some sort of “creatures”that if you look at them, you go buggo and kill yourself. It’s still a silly premise, but it’s wisely a premise that doesn’t get answered. Are the creatures aliens? Demons? Ghosts? Some escaped bioweapon? It’s left unclear. Since there is no good explanation for such a nonsensical effect, leaving things unexplained is the precisely proper way to go.
TBB does a good job of maintaining an air of doom and horror. Unlike TH, there is a distinct hint of Lovecraftian cosmic horror here: there’s no fighting the monsters, only avoiding them and their influence. The monsters don;t rip and tear; they make people do themselves in. The focus isn’t on showing innovative ways for people to kill themselves, but people being horrified by and confused about what’s going on. Additionally, there is one group of people who are sorta immune: crazy whackos. This fits in with Lovecraft, and is distinctly unhelpful for the survivors. You never see the creatures, but you see how someone who has seen them depicts them… and these images would fit in with the standard mythos critters.
Sandra Bullock is the main character, an uncharacteristically unsympathetic mother-figure. She’s a bit unpleasant as a person and a mother, but not outright villainous… just not the usual perfect person. She ends up with two infants, which in her finite motherhood, names them Girl and Boy… probably because she doesn’t actually expect them to live long in this unfortunate new world, so why get attached?
The basic concept is of course silly, like any supernatural horror movie. But unlike “The Happening,” “The Bird Box” was effective horror and was entirely serious, with little in the way of goofiness.
