Jeff's Top 13 Horror Films of 2018 #11

Jeff's dead raising edition of the Creepercast's Top 13 films of 2018 continues with...

#11
BIRD BOX

"Five years after an ominous unseen presence drives most of society to suicide, a mother and her two children make a desperate bid to reach safety."

BIRD BOX is an American post-apocalyptic drama thriller film directed by Susanne Bier from a screenplay written by Eric Heisserer, based on the 2014 novel of the same name by Josh Malerman. The film follows a woman, played by Sandra Bullock, who, along with a pair of children, dubbed Boy and Girl, must make it through a forest and river blindfolded to avoid supernatural entities which cause people who see them to die by suicide. Trevante Rhodes, Jacki Weaver, Rosa Salazar, Danielle Macdonald, Lil Rel Howery, Tom Hollander, BD Wong, Sarah Paulson, Colson Baker, and John Malkovich also star.

I'm a sucker for horror that can expertly use the art of what you don't see is worse what than what you can and BIRD BOX pulls it off better than I have ever seen (or not seen?). It helps that seeing the monsters are truly a personal experience, so even if we did see them they would be our own monsters and not necessarily the ones our survivors are seeing. Thus we are confined to tight shots on the actors or views through their blindfolds, when the monsters are present. The closest we come to knowing what they look like is a series of scribbles by one of them. The title, of course, comes from the birds ability to sense the presence of evil and therefore work as an alarm. In the end we have a very interesting study of human nature combined with an evil that is dangerous when seen. It feels like an attempt to A QUIET PLACE to another level and though I feel it fails in that department it is worthy of this number 11 spot.

Currently available on NETFLIX

In Australia, Netflix originally partnered with four Twitch streamers in performing what they called a Bird Box challenge, in which they would play some popular video games while blindfolded. However, the challenge has since turned into a global Internet meme in which participants wear blindfolds and try to do day-to-day activities. In response, Netflix has released several messages over social media advising people not to undertake the latter challenge due to the dangers that may be caused by doing so.

We are very sad that a warning like this would even need to be issued and ask all our readers to please use some common sense, which we of course know you will.