David Pastor: Last News

that movie at Christmas. Running time: 110 minutes. Rated TV-MA.

Bird Box Barcelona is a spin-off from Netflix’s breakout 2018 horror thriller.Based on the book by Josh Malerman, the original Bird Box followed Malorie Hayes (Sandra Bullock) as she tries to protect herself and her two children from entities which cause people who look at them to kill themselves.Despite mixed reviews from critics, the film became a huge success. According to Netflix, Bird Box was watched by over 45million subscribers within its first week, breaking records for an original film release on the platform.The film is described as a spin-off sequel – not a direct continuation – which is set around the same time as the original film.

Dennis Harvey Film Critic Five years ago seems aeons in an era so disrupted by COVID. So it comes as a surprise to realize that the original screen “Bird Box” arrived a full 14 months or so in advance of pandemic restrictions — becoming an early Netflix pop-culture phenomenon before lockdown made that sort of thing a regular occurrence. Susanne Bier’s film of Josh Malerman’s sci-fi horror novel was intriguing and suspenseful enough, even if its emphasis on psychological drama over thrills made for a somewhat unlikely breakout hit.  Inevitably, if belatedly, there’s now a follow-up — but not an adaptation of Malerman’s own print sequel, which continued the travails of the character played by Sandra Bullock. Instead, “Bird Box Barcelona” is a “parallel story” set on another continent entirely. Written and directed by Alex and David Pastor, whose prior genre efforts “The Last Days” (2013) and “Carriers” (2009) both had similar basic premises, it finds a different cross-section of humanity imperiled by unseen but presumed space aliens. When glimpsed, they induce immediate, overwhelming suicidal urges — or, in a chosen few, mind-controlled subservience that drives them to lead unsuspecting others to their doom.

Bird Box” was one of Netflix’s greatest hits. The Sandra Bullock-led film follows her and two children in the apocalypse, where the world has been decimated by a mysterious entity that forces people to kill themselves the minute they see it.