When Bird Box flew onto Netflix in late December, the post-apocalyptic horror thriller quickly
became something of a phenomenon.
All anyone on the Internet could talk, tweet, and theorize about was Sandra Bullock's character
Malorie, her fight for survival in a world where deadly entities spark global psychosis,
and how the planet tumbled into such terrifying chaos.
But the two biggest mysteries that are still lingering in viewers' minds are what the creatures
look like and why the movie didn't actually show them.
Thanks to Bird Box screenwriter Eric Heisserer, lead actress Bullock, and director Susanne
Bier, we now have answers to both those questions.
Heisserer, Bullock, and Bier recently sat down for an interview with Bloody Disgusting,
and during the conversation, Heisserer revealed that the film very nearly included a scene
in which the monsters are shown in their full form.
Heisserer explained:
"There was a time when one of the producers was like, 'No, you have to see something at
some point' and forced me to write essentially a nightmare sequence where Malorie experiences
one in that house."
Bullock offered a detailed account of what the monster looked like in the scene that
didn't make it into the final cut of Bird Box:
"It was a green man with a horrific baby face.
It was snake-like, and I was like, 'I don't want to see it when it first happens.
Just bring it into the room.
We'll shoot the scene.'
I turn and he's like this [growling at me].
It's making me laugh.
It was just a long fat baby."
After Bullock described the Bird Box monster, director Bier chimed into the chat to explain
that the creature's design was a little more terrifying in theory than they were in practice,
and that unveiling to viewers the monsters' appearance would take away their power.
"It so easily becomes funny.
We actually shot that [scene] and spent a lot of energy on [it], but every time I saw
it, I was like, 'This is not going to be tense.
It's just going to be funny."
Heisserer added that he was "so sorry" Bier and Bullock had to shoot that sequence, but
with hindsight, everyone can laugh about the situation and agree that the choice not to
show the monsters in Bird Box was the right one.
Bier went on to explain that the more the team looked at the monsters, the more powerless
they became.
"Whatever those beings are, they tap into your deepest fear.
Everybody's deepest fear is going to be different from the other person.
I think to suddenly take upon a concrete shape in order to illustrate that becomes weak.
Where the conceit is really strong, then trying to illustrate it is kind of almost meaningless.
So it would have been the wrong decision."
Opting to keep the monsters' appearance ambiguous, only showing black shadows and wind gusts
to signal their impending arrival, was a smart one, as it's often what we don't see that
scares us most.
However, as anyone who has seen Bird Box will know, the film took the complete opposite
approach with its depiction of the violence that the creatures cause, showing the self-killings
in great detail.
Bier explained the thought process behind the all-in directorial choice, noting that
Netflix doesn't "have any inhibitions at all" when it comes to such shocking sights and
that the Bird Box team wanted everything to feel as real as possible without becoming
unnecessarily gory.
"I think we pretty much wanted to do it so it felt real and at the time was harrowing.
But not so that would become the essence of it.
It's pretty much done so it's kind of this is what it would look like if they actually
did what they are doing.
I think if you stick to that, you get it relatively realistic."
Bird Box remains the talk of Twitter and the movie on everyone's mind, and with countless
viewers comparing the film to John Krasinski's breakthrough fright-fest A Quiet Place, it's
certainly aiding the renaissance of sense horror.
That the film has captivated so many people without ever showing its main monsters is
perhaps an even bigger accomplishment.
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