When all hell breaks loose, sometimes it’s best to shut your eyes. Or at least that’s the case in Netflix’s new apocalyptic thriller Bird Box based on the 2014 novel by Josh Malerman.
In the official trailer for the film, Sandra Bullock plays a mother named Malorie who blindfolds herself and her kids in order to protect them from mysterious forces that feed off of their sight. It sounds a little bit like a counterpart to John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place, but instead of worrying about noise, the victims in Bird Box are debilitated by sight, and no one really knows why.
At the start of the trailer Bullock is accompanied by Sarah Paulson to an ultrasound. On their way home from the hospital, the two women start seeing people go absolutely insane in the streets, with car accidents and fires breaking out around them. “People describe seeing an entity that takes on the form of your worst fears,” Lil Rel Howery’s character offers as an explanation in the trailer.
Bullock teams up with John Malkovich, Trevante Rhodes, and more to try and survive, eventually reuniting with her kids, whom she blindfolds for protection. With her blindfolded children, Bullock takes a two-day journey down “a treacherous river to the one place left that may offer sanctuary.”
The film is directed by Academy Award winner Susanne Bier, and was penned by Eric Heisserer, who has worked on a number of sci-fi thrillers and horror flicks including Arrival, Hours, and The Thing.
Bird Box releases on Neflix on Dec. 21, and also comes out in select theaters.
