BIRD BOX : Friday 21st December 2018

I saw 'BIRD BOX' from the comfort of my own living room watching the film on Netflix the day of its worldwide release on 21st December. Based on the 2014 novel of the same name by Josh Malerman, the film is Directed by Susanne Bier whose most recent outing as Director was for the highly acclaimed television series 'The Night Manager'. Made for US$20M the film has a limited theatrical run from 14th December before being released on the Netflix streaming service on 21st December. Within a week, Netflix had claimed that the film had seen the biggest seven-day viewership for any of its original movies to date, with over 45 million viewers. The film has received mixed or average Reviews from Critics, although Sandra Bullock's performance as the lead character has been praised.

The film opens up with a mother, Malorie Hayes (Sandra Bullock) kneeling down and speaking quickly and anxiously to her two young children. She informs them that they are about to go on a journey down a river and its going to be dangerous, and if they don't listen to her every word they will die. She also tells them that if they get separated they will die, and if they run off or cause a distraction they will die, and if they remove their blindfolds for as much as a fleeting minute they will die.

We then go back in time five years and Malorie is an expectant mother who is visited in her home painting studio by her sister Jessica (Sarah Paulson). Before setting off to the local hospital for a routine pregnancy check-up, they see reports on television that some sort of strange phenomenon across Europe and Russia is causing mass suicides on a seemingly alarming scale. The pair dismiss the story and go to the hospital. Upon leaving the clinic the pair witness a woman in the corridor smashing her head repeatedly against a plate glass window, smashing the glass and her head and face. Malorie realises that perhaps there was more to that news story than they gave it credit for. As they attempt to race away from the hospital, they see chaos erupt in the streets all around them as more and more people suicide. Distraught by the scenes and carnage unfolding in front of them, Malorie reaches into the back seat to retrieve her ringing phone, when Jessica is unnerved by something up ahead. Jessica crashes the car which comes to halt upside down. They both clamber out. Injured, Malorie is unable to stop her sister stepping in front of an oncoming speeding truck and is killed instantly.

Malorie is swept along by a fleeing crowd of people all running away from something that no one can seemingly see, hear or understand. She is pulled to safety by a group of strangers holed up in house, but in the ensuing chaos, one of those residents walks out into the street and sits in a burning car very quickly engulfing herself in flames. That was the the wife of Douglas (John Malkovich) the owner of the house. After collecting their thoughts as much as they are able under the dire circumstances, they draw the conclusion that just by virtue of looking at the creatures can cause humans to go insane and commit suicide. They cover the windows with newspapers and blankets to hide themselves from the chaos and creatures on the outside.

Days and presumably a few weeks pass by and food supplies in the house are running short. Malorie and the other holed up residents Charlie (Lil Rel Howery), Tom (Trevante Rhodes), Lucy (Rosa Salazar) and Douglas agree to drive to a local supermarket on a supply run. They paint out the windows, and use the vehicles GPS and proximity sensors to detect obstacles in the road and to guide them to their destination. Arriving at the store, but not before encountering the creatures which they manage to successfully evade with some nifty driving skills, they find an almost fully stocked supermarket which Charlie happens to work at. In the drinks aisle Douglas is in his element having found a stash of Scotch Whisky and votes to remain there indefinitely. The others however, reject his notion. Malorie comes across a bird cage containing a pair of birds, which she decides to adopt. The birds quickly validate themselves when a man crying for help from behind the loading dock door wants to gain entry. Upon opening the door the birds yelp and flap their wings violently indicating they are an early warning system against the creatures. The man allowed entry quickly attacks the group as he is seemingly under the influence of the creatures and is out to infect other humans. Charlie sacrifices himself so that the others can make a getaway.

Some time later Lucy and Felix (Colson Baker) steal the vehicle and decide to go it alone, leaving those left in the house without any means of transportation. Soon after, another heavily pregnant survivor Olympia (Danielle Macdonald) allows a seemingly unaffected and innocent wanderer, Gary (Tom Hollander) into the house against Douglas's wishes, for which he is locked up in the garage lest he should try to injure or kill their latest resident. Seemingly speaking from first hand experience, Gary refers to infected survivors who are insane and are compelled to force unaffected humans to look at the creatures, of which he has numerous pencil drawings contained in a satchel. When both Olympia and Malorie go into labour, Gary reveals himself to be one of the insane people he described. He then proceeds to remove all the coverings from the windows and attack the others within the house. Gary murders Douglas and forces Olympia, having just given birth, and another survivor Cheryl (Jackie Weaver) to look at the creatures, resulting in their deaths by suicide. Tom is able to kill Gary with a shotgun and save Malorie and the two newborns, leaving all the other survivors in the house, dead.

Fast forward five years, and Tom and Malorie are living together with the children in a seemingly relatively safe haven. Malorie calls the now five year olds only Boy (Julian Edwards) and Girl (Vivien Lyra Blair). One day they receive a return radio transmission from a survivor stating that they are well and safe at a community two days downriver and that they are welcome to join them. Tom wants to go to the community despite the dangers of the river, but Malorie fears it could be a trap.

Following the transmission, Malorie flees with the two children when a group of infected survivors locate them and attempt to kill them. Tom manages to kill all the infected, but in doing so glimpses the creatures which results in him turning his gun on himself. Blindfolded, Malorie takes the children, also blindfolded, and the two birds wrapped in a shoe box to a rowboat next to a river.

Their journey is dangerous as described by the voice at the other end of the radio transmission. After some two days having survived raging rapids, an insane infected man, and even capsizing their boat in the rapids, they are washed ashore but by now separated. The creatures tease the children and Malorie to remove their blindfolds by mimicking the voices of loved ones but are unsuccessful as the three are reunited by the sounds of each others voices, and make it through dense woodland to the community guided by the sounds of tweeting birds, just as the voice had instructed.

Upon arriving Malorie and the two children are quickly taken in, and removing her blindfold very gingerly, sees that the compound is an old school for the blind, and most members of that community are blind, rendering them immune to the creatures. She kneels down and gives the children names, Olympia for the girl and Tom for the boy, and releases the birds from their box to join the many others flying above in an enclosed atrium, that have kept them free from harm for these past five years.

This film evoked memories of M. Night Shyamalan's 2008 post apocalyptic horror thriller 'The Happening' and more recently John Krasinski's 2018 post apocalyptic horror thriller 'A Quiet Place'. This film is below par compared with the latter, and would rate just about the same as the former elevated only by the performance of Sandra Bullock who once again turns it on as the everyday woman determined to overcome adversity and look fear in the face and say FU! The film falls somewhat short on suspense, scares and any real horror elements and lingers too long in the past, not long enough in the present and not at all in the intervening five years. As for the fate outside of Malorie's small little world, we are left but to wonder, and why certain individuals are left to roam free as 'carriers' of the creatures curse but not victims of suicide, also remains unclear. If post apocalyptic thrillers are your thing, and if during these extended school Summer holidays you are looking for two hours to sit and watch such an offering from the comfort of your own lounge, you could do worse than tune into 'Bird Box', but equally there's more compelling viewing out there too.  

'Bird Box' warrants three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, from a potential five.

 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

GET OUT : Tuesday 9th May 2017.

'GET OUT', made for just US$4.5M this comedy horror film is Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Jordan Peele in his debut in the Directors chair, and has so far grossed US$207M and has received much critical acclaim. Jordan Peele is one half of the Comedy Central sketch series pairing of Key & Peele. His film, seen as a satire on racism in the United States in the present day, points at the underbelly of middle class conservatives interwoven with an effective horror story, stands now as the highest grossing film Directed by a black film maker, and has also claimed the spot previously occupied by 1999's 'The Blair Witch Project' as the highest grossing debut film based on an original screenplay in Hollywood history. Not bad credentials at all!

The film opens up with a black guy, Andre Hayworth (LaKeith Stanfield) speaking on his mobile phone while walking down a leafy suburban street late at night. A white car approaches him, with loud music blaring out of the window, and an unseen driver. The car circles around and approaches from behind a nervous looking Andre, who is clearly out of his comfort zone. Andre crosses the street keen to avoid any confrontation, and is then beaten over the head by an unknown assailant and dragged back towards the white car - drivers side door and rear boot open. Bundled up, unconscious in the boot of the car, it speeds off into the night.

Some months later, we are introduced to black photographer Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) and his white girlfriend Rose Armitage (Allison Williams). They have been together for five months now, and they are preparing to visit Allison's parents at their country estate for the weekend. Chris expresses some concern that Allison has not yet told her parents that he is black, but quickly dismisses his concerns when she reassures him that they are non-racial progressive thinking types who would have voted for Obama a third time given the chance. They load up the car and head on out driving in the clear light of day, chatting, laughing and joking most of the way.

Upon arriving at the country estate of parents Dean Armitage (Bradley Whitford) a retired neurosurgeon and Missy Armitage (Catherine Keener) a psychiatrist and hypnotherapist and brother Jeremy (Caleb Landry Jones) the family  attempt to allay any fears that Chris may have about their concerns of an inter-racial relationship. Pretty soon, however, Chris notices the black groundsman Walter (Marcus Henderson) and black housekeeper Georgina (Betty Gabriel) and how their behaviour seems very strange and distant, let alone the fact that an all white family have black servants about the place, in this day and age!

Later that night when Chris can't sleep, and craving a cigarette, he ventures outside. Upon re-entering the house, attempting to be quiet, he walks past a lounge room in which Missy is sitting drinking tea. She invites Chris in to sit down opposite him, holding her cup and saucer in one hand and stirring it with a teaspoon with the other. The sound of the spoon stirring is repetitive and Missy keeps on stirring, while she questions Chris about his mother who was killed in a hit and run accident when he was just eleven.

While they talk, although Chris doesn't realise it, he is hypnotised by Missy to the rhythmic sounds of a spoon stirring a tea cup. He is paralysed to the chair, and Missy orders his conscious mind to a place she refers to as 'the sunken place'. Chris wakes up the next morning from a deep sleep, not knowing how he got fully clothed into bed, realising that Missy had hypnotised him to get him off the cigarettes, or so he at first believes.

The next day at the Armitage household is an annual lawn party held for all white close friends to attend. The guests are all mostly elderly and they take more than an active interest in Chris, asking blatant questions about his ethnicity, race, culture, which needless to say uneases Chris. He notices a black guest who introduces himself as Logan King and who is accompanied by an elderly white lady. Chris notices some bizarre behaviour by Logan and senses that the two have met before, but chooses to say nothing. He secretly attempts to take a photograph of Logan with his mobile phone but the flash from the camera sets Logan off with a nosebleed and then a hysterical confrontation at which Logan yells 'get out' at Chris. Dean shrugs off the episode as a epileptic seizure and when Logan re-emerges from a room with Missy, it is as though nothing ever happened! Chris however, is not so sure.

As the afternoon wears on, Chris and Rose walk the grounds away from the party guests. Chris has become concerned about the strange goings on and persuades Rose that they should leave that night. Meanwhile, Dean holds an auction in their absence, with a large framed portrait sized picture of  Chris by his side. The winning bid for Chris goes to Jim Hudson (Stephen Root) a blind art dealer who is aware of Chris' keen eye for photography. Meanwhile Chris has been able to reach out to his good friend Rod Williams (Lil Rel Howery) who works for the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) and who is also dog minding and house sitting for Chris and Rose while they are away.  Chris tells Rod of his observations and sends the photograph of Logan over for Rod to do some investigative work.

While packing up in readiness to leave, Rod advises Chris that Logan (LaKeith Stanfield) is in fact Andre Hayworth who vanished mysteriously six months ago, and who is both known to them. While Rose's back is turned, Chris notices a closet door left ajar and sticks his head inside to investigate. Inside he uncovers a shoe box of photographs of Rose up close and personal with what appear to black boyfriends - lots of individual pictures of her and black men. Chris's need to leave takes on a new sense of urgency. As he attempts to do so and Rose seems to fumble for her missing car keys, so his exit from the house is blocked by Dean, Missy, Jeremy, and Rose. Missy gives a simple command and Chris crashes to the floor totally incapacitated.

Chris comes round strapped to a chair, in front of a old television screen, which blurts out a video explaining why he is tied to the chair and the next steps for him. It seems that the family have developed a method of transplanting the brains of their older family and friends into the bodies of younger black people, that are pre-selected by Rose and prepared by hypnosis by Missy. Hence Walter, Georgina and Logan's strange behaviours. Jim Hudson purchased Chris for this purpose, so that he can be the host and regain his sight.

Whilst Dean is prepping Jim Hudson for the brain transplant in his own private home surgery, Jeremy is sent to collect Chris. Chris however, has an ace up his sleeve and is able to out fox Missy's hypnotic commands when Jeremy least expected it and is able to effect his escape, but not before dispensing with several family members. As Chris exists the house in Jeremy's car, he mows down Georgina, and in his childhood guilt over the death of his mother in a hit and run accident, goes back to check on the downed housekeeper. He loads her into the car, and she quickly comes round turning on Chris, causing him to crash the car into a tree, so killing Georgina on impact.

Rose who has been locked way in her bedroom, surfing the internet for her next unsuspecting black boyfriend, hears the commotion and appears at the front door brandishing a shotgun as she and Walter go in pursuit of an already injured, shaken and unhinged Chris. For what happens next, you'll just have to watch the film.

It's easy to see why this film has garnered so much positive press and the record breaking Box Office receipts it has. The film is at once a smart and relevant satire coupled with sharp wit and a modern horror story that delivers a thought provoking, effective and entertaining package. The first half of the film slowly sets the tone amidst racial jibes and effective hints that something may be amiss at the Armitage Estate, or maybe Chris is just over reacting being the minority in the room and therefore on edge anyhow. But the second half lets loose with the nightmare that awaits Chris as the tension builds to its bloody, brutal and emotional climax, at which point the comedy drops away to full blown horror, ending with a comedic note as the screen fades to black. A clever film, very well told, that sets Jordan Peele up there as a Writer/Director to watch out for based on the calibre of this inaugural offering.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-