Bird Box Review

Universal optioned Josh Malerman's novel before it was published, and it sat there until 2017, when Netflix acquired the rights and gave it to Susanne Bier, with a script by Eric Heisserer, who adapted Arrival. The structure is its best idea: the river journey, with Malorie (Sandra Bullock) and two children known only as Boy and Girl, is intercut with the first days of the outbreak, so the film always sits on both sides of the worst.

Bullock is flinty and good, and the river scenes, shot on the Smith River in far northern California, frighten because they are built from sound: wind, whispers, the birds in their box. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross score it as dread rather than music. The house is weaker, a set of types who exist to be picked off, John Malkovich's sneering holdout among them, and because the creatures can never be seen, the film has nothing to show at the moments that most need it.

Critics were mixed, 51 on Metacritic. Netflix said more than 45 million accounts watched it in its first week, and when a blindfold challenge spread online, the company asked people not to hurt themselves.