Ten minutes into watching Bird Box, a brand new 2018 original Netflix movie, I had to pause the movie, breaking the trance I was cemented in. My hands typed fast, but my heart was beating even faster. I refused to press play, allowing the movie to progress until I was sure what was going to happen next. As my body rattled from chilling scenes that my eyes had just endured, text bubbles appeared on my phone.

Although I tried to watch Bird Box completely by myself, I could not. Spoilers from my friends were the only things holding me to my spot in front of my computer screen.

The R rated movie is spine-chilling, spooky, scary, and amazing. Early in the movie, the world becomes haunted by a monster, and if the characters look at the monster they are compelled to commit suicide. The monster, as we discover later in the movie, is made up of the people’s greatest fears. However, as a viewer, you never actually see the monster. The only way to survive in this new chaotic and slowly-diminishing world is not to see. The movie follows a mother, Malorie (Sandra Bullock), and her two young children, Boy (Julian Edwards) and Girl (Vivien Lyra Blair), who embark on a challenging mission down a river in hopes of finding a safe haven, while the monsters beg them to open their eyes and cave in.

The most interesting part about this movie is the meaning. There isn’t an exact meaning to the movie, whether it was created to shine light on social issues, mental illness, or to show the fear of becoming a parent is unsaid; the meaning of Bird Box is how the viewer interprets it.

Creating a movie without an exact meaning causes the audience to search inside themselves and determine what the movie means to them. Does the movie connect to the fears of social media? Are the monsters that kill us actually within our screens? But, if they were to come true, the society would crumble under the reality. Is the movie about demons who live inside people killing others out of hatred? Millions of questions are asked, and there are a million answers, which makes the movie so different.

The 5th Wave, which came out in 2016, is yet another movie where the world becomes self-destructing due to a mysterious spaceship in the sky; multiple things start going wrong, coming in waves of five. However, the movie does not make the viewer search and think as deeply as Bird Box does.  

The producers, Chris Morgan, Scott Stuber, Clayton Townsend, and director Susanne Bier, created a unique movie with an amazing cast. The way Malorie portrays her dynamic character by changing personalities throughout the movie, ranging from shy to brave to loving, brings the movie several more emotions than fear. The closing scene, in which she truly becomes a parent, deeply touches the heart of the audience as much as when a main character dies.

By not being able to see the monster, the movie could be less scary and somewhat of a joke, but the monster’s special effects are outstanding. A shadow would be cast across a character, leaves would blow in the distance, or voices would softly scream at the characters in place of seeing the monster. The eerie aura of the monster is enough to bring on a cold sweat without even seeing it, a task which most movies cannot create. 

The movie also creates its plot in a unique way. Instead of starting at the beginning and progressing to the end, the movie starts five years after the monster is introduced. The movie then constantly flashes back to before we know about the monster, cutting in and out between the two time frames until they meet up. By using this method, the viewers produce many questions inside their head, keeping them intrigued throughout the whole movie.

Bird Box is a very intriguing and unique movie, unlike many that have come out recently. The meaning of the movie is widely controversial throughout the world. The movie has already made an appearance in numerous memes and has even created a challenge for itself, called the Bird Box challenge. Society can’t seem to get enough of the movie, and neither can I.