One of the most intriguing aspects of Bird Box is that we never actually see the creatures
that are terrorising the world, but if you watch very carefully, we are given some crucial
little clues about them and who they've killed.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers, I'm Jan and in this video I'm revealing seven monstrous details
you may have missed when watching Netflix's viral sensation Bird Box.
Plus, I'll be revealing some brand new behind-the-scenes photos of a monster that was designed for
the movie but never used.
Spoilers ahead so take care if you haven't seen the film yet.
The first details of the monsters emerge after everyone who's holed up inside Douglas's house
try to figure out what's going.
But it's Charlie who probably has the best insight into what humanity is now up against.
He explains that what's happening is the end game and he lists the names of various mythological
demons and malevolent religious entities that he's been studying for a book he's writing.
The "Aka Manah" that Charlie mentions is often depicted as a horned entity and one of Gary's
sketches resembles the Zoroastrian demon.
Aka Manah signifies "Evil Mind", "Evil Purpose", "Evil Thinking", or "Evil Intention" which
fits in nicely with how the monsters in Bird Box take over the minds of people who see
them.
Depictions of Aka Manah sometimes show him manipulating people like they're puppets on
a string.
He's a particularly cruel and intelligent demon who, ultimately, seeks death for the
humans he controls.
In a post-apocalyptic movie like Bird Box, it's pretty much expected that many of the
characters we meet will end up getting killed off with a few exceptions.
But some of the deaths in Bird Box are much harder to spot than others, for example, you
probably didn't take in what happened to the couple who ran out of Douglas's house to try
and rescue their children.
"If you go outside, you'll die."
"My children are out there!"
"Move!"
"You won't make it to your children!"
Well, when Tom and co drive out to the supermarket, their car passes over a number of dead bodies
in the street.
There's a stomach-churning moment, when we see the car about to roll over a corpse, followed
by the sickening sound of bones crunching.
And if you look at the close-up of that body before the car hits, you'll see it's actually
the guy who left the house several days earlier and behind him is his wife.
The body that gets run over has the same blue jacket, light top and beige trousers the guy
had on in Douglas's house and the body of the woman behind him has the same cream and
pale-coloured clothing his wife was wearing, including the little bit of lace at the base
of her top.
There are some interesting details in Malorie's paintings at the beginning of the movie that
hint at what's to come.
One of the paintings seems to foreshadow the monstrous apocalypse unfolding on the TV screen
behind Malorie.
You need to look very closely, but there's a deer with what may be a wolf behind it,
but even more strikingly, there's some kind of monster to its side.
It looks like a huge serpent has opened its jaws about to attack the deer, and on top
of that, the head of the snake seems to be emerging from an even larger, whale-like mouth
that's about to snap up the both animals, who seem oblivious to their fate.
And if you look even closer, you can see what appears to be the head of a large-beaked bird
in the trees behind the enormous beast.
Obviously, the painting's open to interpretation, but it makes me think of the final scenes
of the movie where Malorie is running through the forest fleeing from this enormous malevolent
force chasing her through the trees.
The wind seems almost like it could devour Malorie and the children in this shot, just
like the monster in this painting is about to swallow up the animals.
Another sinister being that shows up in Gary's drawings is Cthulhu, a Lovecraftian cosmic
entity that lives beneath the earth.
His appearance in Bird Box is especially relevant because in the mythos of Cthulhu, simply gazing
upon him will drive an ordinary human insane.
It's said that he, and other alien beings like him, exist at a level we humans simply
cannot comprehend, which is why even looking at him would drive us to madness.
HP Lovecraft's description of Cthulhu mentioned "an octopus-like head whose face was a mass
of feelers, a scaly, rubbery-looking body" and the picture in Gary's drawings definitely
fits that.
Interestingly and fittingly for our movie, Cthulhu has cult followers, similar to the
worshippers of the creatures in Bird Box.
This group has been able to look upon the monsters and, rather than killing themselves,
they feel enlightened.
The man who attacks Malorie on the boat tells her that "everyone must look" and that "it
shall cleanse the world!"
Gary and Fish Fingers, the possessed guy at the supermarket, say how beautiful the creature
is, and they both fanatically use whatever tricks they can to gain access to survivors
to convert them to their cause.
The post-apocalyptic scenario of Bird Box also ties in with the idea that many Cthulhu
cultists and believers have that when Cthulhu and his fellow gods rise again, the human
race will be destroyed.
So, Cthulhu seems to be big inspiration for Bird Box, even if there's an array of other
drawings and sketches that Gary lays out on the coffee table confirming that the monsters
in the movie [likely] look different to different people.
By the way, I wonder if the reason Gary has drawn so many different versions of the monsters
is because he has some kind of dissociative identity disorder, aka multiple personality
disorder, or alternatively, he may have collected them together from other people at the mental
institution.
A book in Douglas's house that Malorie gets interested in is by Giovanni Piranesi, an
Italian artist who was known for his atmospheric etchings of imaginary prisons, which have
been a major influence on films such as Metropolis, Blade Runner, and The Third Man, writers like
Edgar Allan Poe and Franz Kafka, and artists including MC Escher.
Similar to Piranesi's drawings, the monsters in Bird Box create an imaginary prison in
the mind of their victims.
Remember what Charlie said, that it's "the entity that takes on a form of your worst
fears or... your deepest sadness or your greatest loss."
So, the monsters cut individuals off from others, locking them away within their own
minds.
In other words, they create a prison of fear, sadness and loss inside people's heads which
nobody else can see or understand the true horror of.
That eventually leads them to either suicide or possession and control by the creatures
in the case of characters like Gary or Fish Fingers.
Malorie herself suffers from an emotional disconnect with the rest of the world at the
beginning of the movie, but she very gradually connects with other people like Tom and, eventually,
by the end, she breaks out of her own figurative prison, connecting with the children she's
raised and the community she's joined.
A curious reference to another source of weird and wonderful creatures comes via a book that
Malorie grabs to read while Greg is trying to observe the creatures via the security
camera footage.
The book she's holding while talking to Charlie is called "Cabinet of Natural Curiosities"
by the 18th-century Dutch natural historian Albertus Seba.
And, appropriately enough, it's full of drawings of real-life and mythical beasts, ranging
from creatures of the deep to an array of snakes and a creepy seven-headed hydra monster
that's especially difficult to defeat as cutting a head off the beast causes another two to
grow in its place.
In my Alternate Ending and Deleted Scenes video, I spoke about how the creatures were
originally going to appear in a scene in Bird Box, and since making that video the special
effects makeup company KNB EFX have released photos of what the creature would have looked
like during Malorie's deleted nightmare scene.
These are some pictures shared on Instagram by KNB EFX co-owner Howard Berger.
On the left is the design for the prosthetic piece for the monster.
That was then placed on actor Dirk Rogers and makeup applied on top.
The final result is in the bottom right corner.
This deleted scene was originally in the movie because, according to screenwriter Eric Heisserer,
one of the producers was insisting that a creature had to be shown at some point.
Director Susanne Bier also explained that although a lot of time and expense went into
filming the creature scene, when they reviewed it they didn't feel it was scary enough.
And with these new pictures we can see why Sandra Bullock described the look of the creature
as "snake-like" and resembling "a long fat baby".
I don't know if there were ever any plans to add any additional CGI effects on top of
the creature in post-production to make it more menacing.
But I can see why this scene was cut in the end as the real horror of the monsters in
Bird Box is that they tap into each individual's deepest fear, so by giving them a definitive
form, the scariness would be lost for many viewers.
And if you want to find out more about other deleted scenes and the horrific alternate
ending to Bird Box that didn't make it into the movie, you can tap in the top right for
my video on that or check the links in the video description.
So, did you spot any other cool details in Bird Box?
And what do the monsters represent for you?
Let me know in the comments below!
Every week I have new movie breakdowns and coming soon I'll be taking a look at the film
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Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers!