For a world which has become so sight-orientated there are times when the sense of dread you feel whilst watching Bird Box is almost incapacitating.
Much has been said about how this is a 'blind' version of 'A Quiet Place' - it is most definitely not. The source material 'Bird Box' written by Josh Malerman was published in 2014. In many ways this film is all the more terrifying because of society's reliance on seeing the world around them. As you watch and come to understand (although not fully) the mechanics of the horror that is the basis of this post apocalyptic tale you find yourself wondering what would you do in a world where your eyes are your greatest weakness?
Yes, perhaps more could have been done to fill out the concepts of family, parenthood, and connecting. With a run-time of just under 2 hours the film does enough and manages to intertwine these themes with the base horror and makes you care enough to take the journey through the fear with Sandra Bullock's Malorie and the rest of the cast who perform admirably. The way the film is split over different time periods is not a clever gimmick as has been the case with so much output over the last few years. It simply layers on another level of dread as the film proceeds towards it's conclusion.
As is fitting a film who's protagonists are reliant on a life without vision, it is not full of bombastic CGI action sequences and instead wraps itself in a sense of horror that I found both terrifying and refreshing.
This is an excellent film in a theater or at home, with a story that will touch at a core vulnerability that makes many of us uncomfortable. Yet as the 280 million+ people around the world who are classed as having 'low-vision' or 'blind' already know' - if you have the will there is life to be had, sighted or not.
