Another pretentious modern horror film, despite all the hype

Rating: 4/10 (31 December 2018)

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
Malorie (Sandra Bullock) is an ordinary woman, who's just learned she's pregnant, who is suddenly plunged into a nightmare world of madness and mayhem, when people start suicidally throwing themselves to their doom. After her sister Jessica (Sarah Paulson) falls victim to this madness, she hauls herself into the home of Douglas (John Malkovich), a cynical man mistrustful of everyone, along with a group of other survivors. The story cuts between this and Malorie commandeering two young children to safety in blindfolds...
Horror films can't seem to get it right these days. They're either taking the cheap and easy route, overloading on jump scares and loud screeching, or they're trying to be too deep and cerebral, literally jumping from one extreme to another. And in the latter case, it's always at the crux of a really far fetched, far out concept, as is the case with Bird Box, the new Netflix film that seems to have everybody talking. The first thing that springs to mind less than five minutes into it is the recent big screen frightener A Quiet Place, a similarly over the top film that perfectly illustrates what I'm talking about.
For all its high concept pretensions though, it soon succumbs to the clichÃ©s all too easily, with a bunch of stereotypical characters all holed up in a remote location, and echoes of other horror fare, such as 28 Days Later..., also pervade. Telling the story in two separate strands, it all pans out too long and comes off as too long winded. Even the performances, from a mostly seasoned supporting cast, don't feel like they're really heartfelt. Even Bullock feels flat and awkward in the first half, although she does come alive a bit in the second.
It's all intriguing and diverting enough not to be a complete failure, but you just wish everyone involved had not tried to be so high handed. In the end, what seems to be some kind of Sixth Sense style twist rolls by, but if you can put it together in one go, you're a better man than me. Personally, I'd got to the stage when I just wanted to slap on one of those damn blindfolds myself and relax. **