The Dark Year: Bird Box

2018, Susanne Bier (Things We Lost in the Fire) -- Netflix

This one gets to serve dual duty, slotted into an empty spot in the 31 Days of Halloween calendar and covering a gap from 2018.

This movie slides into the sub-genre of post-apocalypse / survival horror / monster movie that has grown in the last handful of years; I guess, it likely has existed long before, but it garnered attention with the A Quiet Place. This one was based on a 2014 novel from Josh Malerman, wherein an invisible force causes those that look upon it (so, is it invisible or is it just not able to be depicted?) to commit suicide. I can only assume Malerman was inspired by Shyamalan's The Happening which also has an invisible force caused mass apocalyptic level death by their own hands, though he claims he had a rough draft written before. Yeah, uh huh.

Anywayz, the movie does as the book, telling in different time frames, the bulk of the story being done in flashbacks to the time during and just after the event, the arrival of whatever or whoever it was. Malorie (Sandra Bullock, The Lost City) is pregnant, a single expectant mother only connected to the world by her unflappable sister. Said sister (Sarah Paulson, Glass) dies almost immediately and panicking Malorie is ushered into a house where a number of survivors are hiding out. They have quickly ascertained the cause and black out the windows. The rest of the movie, the "current timing" is Malorie escaping with two five year children, Boy and Girl, to a boat on a river to a place of refuge.

There is just enough world building to satisfy my brain. The "creatures" are depicted through shadows, whispers and the swirling of leaves. The movie begins, as all do, with news reports of this phenomena emerging first in Romania or Russia and quickly spreading to the rest of the world. If you do not look at whatever it is, it will eventually leave you alone. It also will not enter a location with closed doors, which led me to wonder if there were hints of vampire mythos in there. This was also supported by the "Renfields", those that had looked upon the "creature" and survived, and were now obsessed with making sure all survivors looked upon the "beauty".

In my rewatch I once again enjoyed myself. The movie goes quickly enough from an ensemble bottle episode format to survival so as to not drag out the expected conflicts between personalities. Bullock really does a good job of embracing the personality of a woman who really wasn't suited to being a mother, but tenacious about protecting her family. I suspected she had not really decided whether she was keeping the child until the day the event happened. The journey, both literally and figuratively is handled well.