By Grace Baldino, online editor
If you were presented with corpses of other mangled human bodies, and had been forced to stare in horror as they commited suicide in some of the most gruesome ways, can you truly say you would take your time to think?
No. Your brain wouldn’t let you. A rush of adrenaline would kick start your body to be primed to run or fight, but you’re probably more likely to pull a Monty Python and “run away!!”
However, no matter how much I screamed, “RUN!” to the tv during Bird Box, Sandra Bullock wouldn’t listen to me.
Netflix’s newest thriller/drama features Bullock, Trevante Rhodes, and John Malkovich, all facing off against a deadly foe, which we never get to see.
During the introduction, we see a young lady trying to help Bullock’s character, Malorie, out of the street, as Malorie was pregnant. We see the unknown lady help out our protagonist, as she proceeds to commit suicide.
Bouncing back and forth by a few years, Bird Box follows the life of Ms. Malorie Hayes, and her struggle to keep her two children alive after a mysterious force makes anyone who looks at it kill themself.
During the filming of Bird Box, the cast was actually blindfolded. Bullock, however, asked the director to remove a layer of blindfold so she could protect the children while filming scenes where she was running with them.
Despite Bullock’s concern for the children’s safety, her character doesn’t seem quiet the same.
Refusing to name the children with names we could expect, Malorie dubs their ‘names’ Boy and Girl. This is only one of the beautiful, and intelligent moments we have with Malorie
The Netflix meeting must have been a blast if their idea of a smash was a copy of A Quiet Place, except you can’t see rather than produce sound .
However, with seemingly any Netflix tv show or movie I review, Bird Box was met with some controversy upon release.
The film, which came out in December 2018 and took social media by storm, shows a series of cataclysmic events to showcase an apocalypse.
Some of the most recognizable footage comes from the 2013 Lac-Mégantic tragedy in Quebec, which killed 47 people after a train carrying oil crashed and exploded.
Netflix had to apologise for seeming insensitive, however the company has showed no intention to actually fix it, as the clips are still in the movie.
Netflix also had to tell people to not do different, sometimes menial, sometimes dangerous tasks while blindfolded.
Dubbed the Bird Box Challenge, there are viral videos of people doing just about everything from walking around the supermarket to even attempting to drive on the highway. The challenge was first started before the movie was released.
For seemingly obvious reasons, many health professionals advised against the challenge, as loss of sight can make even walking difficult, as well as increase one’s mortality rate by 30 percent.
All in all, Bird Box proves that if you can mentally handle two hours and four minutes of shaky camera work, jump scares, gore, and sensory deprivation, while still liking it afterwards, Netflix can do anything.
Bird Box viewing doesn't require blindfold
January 24, 2019
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