Bird Box may have terrified you with its chilling, post-apocalyptic setting, but it was originally
going to be even darker!
Yippee-ki-yay movie lovers, I'm Jan and in this video I'm revealing the horrific alternate
ending for Bird Box, as well as another terrifying river scene you never got to see, plus a deleted
scene that actually showed the creatures on screen!
Spoilers ahead so take care if you haven't seen the movie yet.
At the end of Bird Box, Malorie, Boy and Girl survive the rapids despite being capsized,
but then end up separated in the woods where they're tempted by the creatures to remove
their blindfolds.
Terrorised and chased by the monsters, they flee towards the School For The Blind, where
they eventually find safety.
In the original script, however, as the monsters chase them through the trees, Boy and Girl
make it to the door, but Malorie trips and gets left behind.
Boy and Girl get taken in safely by Rick, but Malorie – who's stranded – is flipped
over by one of the creatures.
The creatures' shadows "fall over her face" and Malorie fights back, telling the malevolent
forces to "stay away".
She pulls out her knife, then in a horrifying moment, puts the knife's tip right next to
her eyelid, warning the creatures that she'll make sure she can't look at them.
The creatures buzz around her and, in a close-up shot, Malorie pricks her eye with the knife
drawing a drop of blood.
Seeing this, the creatures all move back, and she's finally able to get inside the building.
This horrific moment would have tipped its hat to the end of Josh Malerman's book on
which the movie's based and which is also much darker.
Spoiler for the novel now: In the book's ending, after Malorie arrives at the School For The
Blind, she discovers that many of the residents have gouged out their own eyes so they can't
be tempted by the monsters.
In the novel, Rick tells Malorie that previously the school's security was much weaker and
a creature managed to break into the building.
During the attack, many people died and a mother "killed four children in a fit of rage".
The community decided they couldn't risk it happening again, so they blinded themselves
with various implements including forks, kitchen knives and even their own fingers.
The original screenplay has a similar scene that happens earlier but was cut from the
final film, where one night Malorie almost blinds her son deliberately with a hypodermic
needle.
The scene takes place at night and Malorie is terrified as she can hear the wind or creatures
bumping against the house.
The two children are asleep covered with blankets, but Malorie has reached the point where she's
decided that blinding them is the only hope for their survival.
Malorie places the needle right up close to Boy's eye, but can't go through with it after
Girl wakes up startled.
Bird Box director Susanne Bier has said, in an interview with Polygon, that when she decided
to make a movie about the apocalypse, it was important to her that there be a hopeful ending.
Bier says she didn't want "the audience to leave […] with a [...] completely bleak
point of view.
[…] And so […] it was key […] that […] this scary, dystopian story, […] has a hopeful
undercurrent."
Certainly a version of Bird Box with Malorie almost gouging out her own eyes, very nearly
blinding her son on purpose, or discovering a community of people who've clawed out their
eyes as the only remedy against the monsters is much bleaker even if her family does still
survive.
Indeed, speaking to the Hollywood Reporter, Bier also said that she "cannot do horror"
and is "much more interested in suspense and thrillers", preferring "things that are threatening
but not gory".
Which seems to be why some of the more gory elements of the story have been toned down.
Unlike many horror or monster movies, Bird Box decides not to show us what the creatures
look like beyond shadows passing over surfaces and how the wind blows and leaves swirl when
they move.
However, there was a moment in the original script which was also filmed where Malorie
has a nightmare about seeing one of the creatures.
The script describes a scene where Malorie is making a phone call and a creature creeps
up behind her.
She hears it and shuts her eyes, trying to hide, but the monster stretches out "two ragged
fingers with wet, black talons on the ends [which] press against her cheek and eyebrow".
Similar to the final film where Gary forces Cheryl to look, in the deleted scene, the
creature forces Malorie's eyes open and she sees "a wide-mouthed, pale, wet face with
bulging eyes like a deep-sea monster".
Malorie then wakes up petrified from her nightmare and goes downstairs for some water.
In the script, this is the moment when Gary arrives at the house and it's Malorie, not
Olympia, who lets him in.
In an interview with Bloody Disgusting, screenwriter Eric Heisserer says he only added the nightmare
scene with the creature because "there was a time when one of the producers [… said]
'you have to see something at some point'".
Director Susanne Bier said that they actually spent a lot of time filming the scene, but
what happened was that when they reviewed the footage it just ended up being funny rather
than scary, which, of course, was the opposite of what they wanted.
Sandra Bullock has described the look of the creature in the deleted footage as "snake-like"
and resembling "a long fat baby".
Now, some people might like to have seen a creature to get an idea of what they looked
like, but leaving something unseen and to the imagination can often be very scary and
effective, especially when compared to a poorly-done CGI-monster.
In comparison, A Quiet Place only showed bits of its creatures which also worked fantastically
well to create a real sense of dread.
Also, if they had kept the deleted monster scene in Bird Box, it would have made it extra
obvious that Gary was going to be in league with the creatures and, on top of that, you
would also likely have worked out pretty quickly that the creature was just a nightmare as
you'd know the filmmakers would be rather unlikely to kill off the lead.
Bier has also said the idea of the creatures in Bird Box is that they tap into your deepest
fear, but as everyone's fears are different, if you give the monsters a definitive form
in the movie, it might take away from that concept.
In the end, we still have Gary's sketches as examples of what the creatures might look
like.
The original script for Bird Box also reveals other deleted scenes that were rather dark.
A particularly interesting and terrifying one is an alternate version of the final river
scene.
In the final movie, just before Malorie and the children reach the rapids, Malorie is
faced with the dilemma of asking one of the kids to look so that she can safely navigate
the river at that point.
She realizes eventually that it's an impossible choice, and instead decides to do everything
she can so they all survive.
In the original script, though, we get a horrific scene at this point that feels inspired by
Hitchcock's classic film The Birds.
As Malorie and the children float down the river and Malorie tries to figure out what
to do, a flock of migrating birds pass overhead squawking normally.
But as they approach the rapids, the sound from the birds becomes more aggressive and
they start attacking each other.
Dead birds begin falling into the river and their blood splashes onto Malorie's face.
A bird then comes crashing into the boat as it tries to kill itself; the boat hits a rock
and the budgies inside the box start chirping.
Malorie hears the sound of a monster nearby and grabbing an oar pokes it in the direction
of the creature which retaliates by capsizing the boat.
This scene would have replaced the scene with the rapids that cause the boat to capsize
in the final movie, and it would also have skipped over Malorie having to decide which
child would face the mortal danger of being the look-out.
Like the alternate ending, a suicidal bird attack would have been a rather shocking scene,
so I can see why this wasn't included if the director wanted to tone down some of the story's
darkness.
And showing Malorie deciding to save both children adds a touch more optimism to the
final movie.
So, do you wish any of these deleted scenes had been in the movie?
And what are your theories about the monsters in Bird Box?
Let me know in the comments below!
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