One of the central mysteries of Bird Box is what the monsters are. Nobody knows how they look, but thats more than enough to make them terrifying.
One thing that really makes the Bird Box monster so scary is that the movie franchise never shows it. H.P. Lovecrafts short story The Call of Cthulhu contains the phrase, The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.” It is one of the many reasons the creative team behind the movies decided to leave the Bird Box monsters up to viewers imaginations. Bird Box became one of Netflixs most intriguing horror films, in which the world is overrun by creatures who drive people to take their own lives by simply looking at them.
Not showing the creatures meant that very little was known about them except by eagle-eyed viewers and those who had read the book. The second movie in the Bird Box franchise took the action to Barcelona and had more people in the movie see the monsters. However, keeping the gimmick from the first movie and not letting viewers see the Bird Box creatures still remained in place. The second movie also kept the tactic of the first by keeping the Bird Box monsters origins unrevealed. The bizarre, weird, and conflicting aspects of the creatures continue to leave viewers just as perplexed as ever, but repeated viewings add some clues for viewers.
They Represent Several Themes
Although the creatures aren’t physically depicted in either the book or the movie, the book suggests that the characters’ interactions offer clues as to what themes the creatures might represent. Depending on who is asking, the Bird Box creatures could stand for racism, the stigma associated with mental illness, parenthood’s challenges, depression, or even a physical representation of false information that is spread via social media and used to coerce people into doing terrible things to themselves or others.
This was expanded upon in Bird Box: Barcelona as well, since it depicts what some of the victims actually saw. One person talked to someone she addressed as “love” before colliding with a revolving tire. Another said he needed to assist in guiding people to the afterlife after seeing his daughter. At least one sect of humanity believes these are angels.
There Are Many Of Them
Observing the conversation in Bird Box, one will notice that the characters speak of the creature in the plural, stating that “they” exist and that they will be safe if they don’t look at “them.” Characters determine that there are numerous Bird Box monsters hiding despite the fact that seeing them would drive one to commit suicide. This is because multiple victims are possessed simultaneously.
Although it is never made clear how they coordinate their attacks or communicate with one anotherif they do so at alltheir movements could be predicated on the fact that their “magic” is derived from visual and auditory hallucinations. These Bird Box creatures can be found all over the world, as demonstrated by Bird Box: Barcelona.
They Take Inspiration From Ancient Deities
Charlie’s role is to deliver a lot of exposition to the other actors in a brief period of time, and it’s easy to miss some of what he has to say. He says that the Bird Box monsters could resemble gods like Aka Manah as he compares them to demons, devils, and other supernatural forces.
Zoroaster created the religion in ancient Persia in the sixth century BC, and Aka Manah is a Zoroastrian demon that symbolized “evil purpose,” “evil intention,” and even “evil thinking” in Avestan. This is especially striking in light of the fact that the Bird Box monsters force their victims to carry out terrible deeds, such as ending their own or other people’s lives.
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