[Spoilers for Bird Box]
Netflix is notoriously secretive when it comes to viewership numbers, but considering the number of “spoilers without context” tweets, I’d wager Bird Box is a hit. Based on Josh Malerman’s novel of the same name, the post-apocalyptic thriller stars Sandra Bullock as a mother trying to protect two children during a river expedition from a supernatural entity that kills upon sight, and how they got there. The monster(s?) is never seen in the movie, which “absolutely riveted” horror maestro Stephen King, but there was an early cut of the film that included a glance. It’s probably for the best it was removed.
“There was a time when one of the producers was like, ‘No, you have to see something at some point’ and forced me to write essentially a nightmare sequence where Malorie experiences one in that house,” screenwriter Eric Heisserer told Bloody Disgusting. Bullock described the monster as “snake-like, and I was like, ‘I don’t want to see it when it first happens. Just bring it into the room. We’ll shoot the scene.’ I turn and… It was just a long fat baby.”
“It so easily becomes funny. We actually shot that and spent a lot of energy on, but every time I saw it, I was like this is not going to be tense,” said director Susanne Bier. “It’s just going to be funny. At first, Sandy was like, ‘I don’t want to see it’ because she thought it was scary. Then it was like, ‘Don’t show it to me because [I’ll laugh].’ Every time I did it, I was like, shit, that’s a different film.” (Via)
Instead, our only look at the monster comes from the bad British man…
… and even then, who knows what it actually looks like. Bird Box, which also stars Trevante Rhodes, Jacki Weaver, Lil Rel Howery, BD Wong, Sarah Paulson, and a wild performance from John Malkovich, is available on Netflix now.
(Via Bloody Disgusting)
