Maybe you'll need a blindfold while watching?

Rating: 7/10 (5 August 2019)

If you have seen 'A Quiet Place' early this year, 'Bird Box' kind of run along the same concept except instead of staying quiet they need to blindfold themselves in order to stay alive. If you read my review about AQP, I pointed out that it reminded me of a 'Black Mirror' episode 'Metalhead' released a year ago. Considering the short timelines in between, it is possible that these three just coincidentally showed up one after the other (BB is based on book that came out in 2014.) While it is derivative, it doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad movie, it's just that you can't help but compare and point out the weaknesses and usually the last one to come out gets hit the hardest. And maybe that's why I don't get all the hype about it, because I've already seen two earlier versions of it.
Sandra Bullock as expected delivers, playing Mallorie, a hesitant mother that took on the responsibility of looking after two kids when she wasn't even ready to look after for one. She effortlessly exudes the struggle between keeping the kids alive because she's still a decent human being or to just leave them behind as the excess baggage that she sees them as. Sarah Paulson as per usual was great, you can see the fear in her eyes, trained well having been in American Horror Story for many seasons now, and she would've made a great stand-in for Sandra if she refused her role for the second time. Lastly the breakout star here is young actress Vivien Lyra Blair. Sure she was annoying every time she didn't listen to Mallorie, but that staring scene when she was told to go to bed but she wanted to hear the end of the story, and the scene when she knew she was going to be chosen against her will, I felt those.
Now the ugly parts. The build-up was there and I kept waiting for the denouement but it never came which left me hanging and with more questions than answers. Where did the entities come from? Why did it have a different effect on others? And don't get me started on the way they handled latter part of the river scene. Another matter to consider is since we don't get to see the antagonist, the clear and present danger we felt early in the movie was never validated. The Director said they specifically did not show the entity as it is different for each person but I read that they shot a scene that shows what monster Mallorie would've seen but she kept laughing at it that they decided to drop it altogether. And the decision to not show anything at all for me I feel was part of why the movie didn't make such an impact on me. It left me with nothing by the time the credits started rolling.
For now there is no indication yet that a sequel is in the works but I wouldn't be surprised if they make another, and then we can see if they can really offer us something new and save the first one by association.