Apocalyptic Suicidal Tendencies

Rating: 7/10 (30 December 2018)

Netflix has a sometimes morbid fixation with end-of-the-world movies as of lately, and its latest entry is no exception. "Bird Box" has an interesting apocalyptic premise: people start killing themselves for no apparent reason, just by looking at thin air. Instead of turning into Zombies ala "The Walking Dead", the folks in Bird Box simply go suicidal. Whereas in TWD we are informed that some sort of virus is responsible for making the dead come alive, in "Bird Box" we are never given an explanation, with only hints of what it could be. In order to avoid going suicidal, people have go blindfold out in the open and avoid looking at thin air.
Pregnant single mother Malorie (Sandra Bullock), narrowly survives the apocalypse in her hometown (somewhere in the Bay Area) by finding refuge at a house that soon becomes the main shelter for survivors in that neighborhood. Malorie and the rest of the survivors in the house conclude that they need to blindfold themselves in order to avoid going suicidal which means driving blind to the supermarket when they run out of food. We also know that a very small group of people are immune to whatever's causing this "suicidal craze", but these people are psychos with mental problems.
The movie is quite tense and it develops at a nice pace but my only complaint is that it never explains anything about what caused the suicidal rage and why some people are immune (aside from actual BLIND people, of course). Just like Netflix's other apocalyptic entry, "How It Ends", the streaming giant just isn't interested in letting people know the origins of their Armageddon flicks, which in turn makes them look half baked and with lackluster endings.
It seems that "Bird Box" would've fared much better as a mini series, since a TON of stuff is left unexplained as if on purpose. As a mini series (and having this movie as its pilot episode), the events shown in "Bird Box" would probably make far more sense.