The Monster in ‘Bird Box’ is You
By: Gwen Towers
Tags: Film, Features, Mental Health, Culture, Movies

Bird Box (2018) memes have been flooding the internet ever since this Netflix Original film was released worldwide a few weeks ago. Case in point, I’ve seen these incredibly accurate GIFs on my Twitter feed just lately:

Taken from Elle.com

Taken from Elle.com

Along with this ingenious observation alluding to the similarities among popular thrillers Bird Box, A Quiet Place (2018), Hush (2016) and, uh, Mean Girls (2004):

Taken from News18.com

However, putting its light-hearted “meme-worthiness” aside, Bird Box became a hot topic because of its ambiguity, leading many people to make their own speculations about its true meaning. Perhaps the most equivocal aspect of the film is its antagonist — the ‘mysterious force’ that drives people to commit mass suicide. Since we never really get to see what it is, its nature is open to interpretation.

I propose this entity can be regarded as a metaphor for our darkest selves; our own wicked inner voices, which we hear all the time but try our best not to heed.

There are those who might argue the monster should be viewed in a literal sense, so there’s no hidden meaning behind it. Since many thriller and horror films are produced entirely for the sake of giving people a good scare, I would say that this argument is valid, if not 100% true.

For instance, Screen Rant analysed the nature of the creature based on its tangible properties and concluded that it’s demonic (in the supernatural sense) because of its unexplainable ability to detect people’s weaknesses, its bizarre appearance in Gary’s (Tom Hollander) drawings, and the ability of birds to detect it — which have strong religious and mythological ties. Screen Rant also cites the characters’ own theories regarding what the mysterious being is, including Douglas’s (John Malkovich) suggestion that it’s a biological weapon and Charlie’s (Lil Rel Howery) proposal that it’s indeed demonic and signals the end of the world.

While all of these may be true, in any art form — be it film, literature, or painting — there’s also value in looking beyond the exact meaning of things. Digging deeper exposes us to greater truths — whether intended by the artist or not — but truths nonetheless. Therefore, I put forth that while the evil being in Bird Box may be none other than classic mythical demons, it may simultaneously be symbolic of the darkest part of ourselves.

Here are the reasons why:

Spoilers for the events of BIRD BOX follow below

Varying Effects on Victims

While the monster drives all its victims to commit suicide, the way it does varies from person to person: Jessica (Sarah Paulson), Malorie’s (Sandra Bullock) sister and the first fatality, killed herself after appearing to see something on the road that made her very afraid:

Douglas’s wife (Rebecca Pidgeon), who was about to save Malorie, apparently saw her dead mother before stepping into a burning car, very likely in an attempt to reunite with her.

Taken from Elle.com

When Olympia (Danielle Macdonald) was forced to look outside the window after giving birth, she seemed to be overcome with extreme despair. However, she was strong enough to hand over her baby to Malorie before she threw herself to her death:

Tom (Trevante Rhodes), like Olympia, was also strong enough to hold off the entity’s powers as he shot one of the mentally ill trespassers who ambushed him and his family before finally shooting himself in the head:

Therefore, even though the victims all kill themselves in the end, it seems the factors motivating them to do so are different in type and in strength. Some, like Jessica, are convinced by fear; some, like Olympia, are compelled by remorse; and some, like Olympia and Tom, can resist the darkness briefly while many immediately succumb to its power.

One way to explain all this is the fact every one of us has a dark side. According to an article in The Atlantic, psychologists David DeSteno and Piercarlo Valdesolo, in their work Out of Character: Surprising Truths about the Liar, Cheat, Sinner (and Saint) Lurking in All of Us, presented “human character as a grayscale continuum, not a black-and-white dichotomy of good and bad”.

Just like us, the victims of Bird Box are made up of a spectrum between good and evil. Some lean more heavily towards evil, some have a greater affinity for good, and many lie on ambiguous points in between. This means that some victims have a greater dark side than others. This dark side can be characterised by a myriad of negative things, from grief to anger to virtually anything that serves as a motivator for the victim to commit suicide. Thus, when the victims come face to face with their dark side, embodied by the monster in the film, they succumb to it for varying reasons and at varying speeds.