Watching: BIRD BOX

Year: 2018
Rated: R
Director: Susanne Bier
Though the book resides unread on my Kindle, fear of spoilers accidentally hitting me in my face like firecrackers made me watch the Sandra Bullock horror-thriller soon as it started blowing up on Netflix. Bird Box opens with what appears to a mother (Sandra Bullock) and her two young children - one boy, one girl - fighting their way to get up a river to safety in a small rowboat. All three are blindfolded, and upfront Malorie (Bullock) almost cruelly reminds the children that to remove their blindfolds means they will die. Malorie does, in fact, even hide the kids under a blanket on the boat for warmth and extra protection, rowing upstream while wearing her own blindfold under an iron-gray sky, the only people seen so far in a world where things appear to have gone very, very wrong. Flashback five years, to a pregnant Malorie on the way to her doctor's appointment with her sister Jessica (Sarah Paulson). At the hospital, various news sources playing in the background warn of a strange phenomenon breaking out on the other side of the world: suddenly and for no reason, people by the thousands over in Europe and the Ukraine are committing suicide without warning, usually by whatever means at hand. Within minutes Malorie learns first-hand the thing have already gone local and - suddenly on her own - hurries on foot through the streets until finally finding a home where a small band of (so-far) survivors have gathered against what appears to be an alien invasion where the invaders can't be seen - or, at least when you do see them, you wind up dead by your own hand. A terrific supporting cast backs up Bullock as other survivors - John Malkovich, BD Wong, Jacki Weaver, and Moonlight star Trevante Rhodes (whose star continues to shoot higher than a bottle rocket), to name a few - but one thing to consider is that whether you like Bird Box may well depend on how you like your horror. This is a film relying much more on a slow-burn playing out/reveal of events, and though with its share of violence the GQ (Gore Quotient) remains low overall.  And while the film has its own sense of closure, it may not be enough for viewers who want everything spelled out for them - all questions answered - by The End. For me, Bird Box was kind of awesome; a fun, taught, well-put together suspense thriller that kept me hooked beginning to end, tense and well-acted and sometimes sad - but certainly worth the hype.  8/10 stars