Dark Film Review: Bird Box

Dark Film Review: Bird Box

Review by Casey Douglass

I heard about Bird Box in an almost incidental way. I saw a few pictures of Sandra Bullock’s Malorie with her blindfold on, and had a friend recommend it to me as a bit like A Quiet Place, but with blindfolds instead of sign language. I managed to miss the apparent hype that has taken place since its release, but having seen it today, I’m glad I took the time to give it a look.

Strange entities are causing breakouts of mass suicide around the world, and these creatures or beings only seem to trigger this impulse when looked upon by humans. Bird Box follows Malorie and her two young children as they try to get to sanctuary, while also filling in the backstory of what happened by way of jumping forward and back in the timeline. The “current” time-frame is their dangerous blindfolded boat journey along a river. The older time-frame shows the day the outbreak reached Malorie’s city, and the path her survival takes as civilisation grinds to a halt around her. Both have their own challenges.

Bird Box is mostly a siege-type horror, the survivors having to barricade themselves into their houses, blocking windows with newspaper and keeping the doors locked The necessity of venturing out at different times does add a bit of variety to things, even if it’s just a case of exchanging one secure location for another. The “not being able to look” aspect is done very well, the entities being alluded to by shadow, movement and sound, as well as various interactions in the environment, from technology to bird song. It’s interesting to watch the various ways in which the characters try to use what is at hand to work around this peril, and like any decent tale, not everything works out in the way that they hope it might.

Bird Box seems to be a film very much about connection, or the lack of it. In the early flashback scenes, Malorie is painting a picture of lonely people and talks about not having to leave the house. There is also an eerie hospital corridor populated by people wholly engrossed in their phones. Yet once the mass suiciding begins and people find themselves thrust together, there is almost too much connection, especially as it becomes apparent that you have to be wary of who you open the door to. John Malkovich’s Douglas is a good example of someone who straddles this line, but in many ways, trusting an honest arsehole might just be better than putting your faith in a friendly stranger. There is also the literal connection between the blindfolded people holding hands and trying to get to where they want to go, which happens on more than one occasion.

Bird Box is a creepy, rather than scary film, one that taps into the fear of the unknown and unseen, rather than falling into the common trap of showing too much of the threat. The suicides are both varied and realistic, but none felt overly gory or gratuitous, which is a nice surprise. I’m certainly a fan of gore, but when it’s kept on the down low, I can respect that too. The central “not being allowed to look” idea certainly contributed an extra dimension to the tension on screen, especially when people become separated, and the simple act of others looking for them becomes an almost impossible task. There’s that connection theme again.

I enjoyed Bird Box, the two or so hour run time didn’t feel like a drag, and that’s a rare thing for me when watching a film, so it must have had something about it. If you have Netflix and this pops up on your suggestion list, give it a watch.

P.S. I’d love to see a cross-over film where the entities of Bird Box team up with the creatures of A Quiet Place. They would each seem to cover the other’s weaknesses and between them, might actually achieve wiping out humanity, rather than falling prey to stubborn upstarts who don't know when they are licked. A Quiet Box. I like the sound of that.

Film Title: Bird Box

Starring: Sandra Bullock, Trevante Rhodes, John Malkovich.

Director: Susanne Bier

Genre: Horror, Post-apocalyptic

Rating: 15
Released: Dec 2018 on Netflix

Dark Film Review: CAM

Dark Film Review: CAM

Review by Casey Douglass

Personal identity has become a far more complicated thing in the age of the Internet. Not only do we have the usual ideas about who we are, but now we can measure our “worthiness” by the numbers we can generate online. Fun to think about, not so fun if we become defined by it all. CAM makes use of this idea, and spins an interesting tale from it.

CAM is an adult-rated horror thriller that follows the attempts of Lola, a reasonably high-ranking
cam-girl, to increase her Rank on the website that she cams for. It begins with her talking to her viewers, reacting to their crude jokes and suggestions and generally trying to charm them into tipping/bidding coins to get her to do things. Being the Internet, it doesn’t take long for the suggestions to take a turn to the dark side. This pales in comparison however, to when she later finds out that she appears to have a double, one who has taken control of her account and is meddling in her life.

This doppelgänger aspect is what I found most intriguing and enjoyable about CAM. The idea that another “me” could break away and be doing the stuff I do online, but in a more extreme way, is certainly an interesting proposition. As far as the film is concerned, it takes quite awhile for the viewer (and Lola) to find out the nature of what is going on, beyond the “Holy shit that’s me!” element. There’s paranoia about it being a competing cam-girl, or one of her fans, or even the cam site streaming old shows again.

We are kept guessing about the double for what felt like just over half the film's length. The “horror” aspect emerged after Lola’s investigations turned up a surprising thing about another cam-girl. It wasn’t much later that the nature of the doppelgänger was revealed. I quite liked the form it took, and could get on board with how Lola ultimately dealt with things. Even the very end, after things settled a little, proved a surprise as to how she decided to go about life in the aftermath.

CAM was written by Isa Mazzei, a former cam-girl herself, which was something that I had no idea about before writing this review. I think that’s why the film seemed to have interesting terms and details, such as the scenes where Lola talks about finding her “whale” (a wealthy person who spends lots on online currencies for in-app purchases) and also the way that the cam-girls compete with each other. The scene where Lola is watching her biggest rival, trying to learn tips, is a small thing, but in a less thoughtful film, probably wouldn’t have even featured. You also feel for Lola, especially as he secret life clashes with her friends and family against her will.

CAM is sexual but not overly so. The words are the most explicit, and as far as flesh, flashes of breasts and implied nakedness/erotic deeds are about as risqué as things get. There is some bloody gore, but even here, that is quite minimal, and in the context of the narrative, not as it seems. The graphical way that the message room works on-screen is realised very well, the frenzy of messages paced fairly and readable in a comfortable way. The only thing that made me laugh a little was the very specific animated gifs people sent in almost instant response to what was happening with Lola.

If you have Netflix, check it CAM out, I think it's well worth a watch.

Film Title: CAM

Starring: Madeline Brewer, Patch Darragh, Melora Walters

Directed by: Daniel Goldhaber

Written by: Isa Mazzei

Produced by: Netflix

Released: 2018

Dark Film Review – Tau

Dark Film Review – Tau

Review by Casey Douglass

Smart speakers and other devices are infesting our homes, giving us the impression that we are even more the masters of our domain than usual. Skynet. Sorry, I just wanted to get that out of the way now. While idly browsing Netflix UK the other day, I saw a new film had been added, one that taps into these notions of meat-based master and techno-servents: Tau.

The main character Julia (Maika Monroe) is abducted from her apartment, fitted with a strange glowing implant in the back of her neck, and thrown into a cell with two other unfortunates. She’s a crafty one though, and soon finds a way to set them all free. Then she meets the titular Tau (Gary Oldman), the artificial intelligence that runs and protects the house that she finds herself in, and things go wrong once again. This house belongs to Alex (Ed Skrein), some kind of tech-entrepreneur who doesn’t let notions of morality get in the way of his research. Julia now has to try to outfox both Alex and Tau, or she will never see the world again.

Tau is a film that spends a lot of its time in one location. At the beginning, we briefly see Julia in dance-clubs and her apartment, but the main bulk of the film is her being trapped in the grey walls of Alex’s bunker-like technology-infused home. I do tend to enjoy films that are set this way as I find that it builds an interesting tension, and also allows the viewer time to get to know one location very well. So this was a positive as far as I was concerned.

Alex comes and goes from the house, going about his daily schedule. This gives Julia time to talk to Tau. It is these conversations that really pique the interest. She begins with getting Tau to understand that she has a name, and things soon flow to the trading of information and mutual education. She wants to know what's behind x door and up y stairs. Tau wants to hear more about the things she knows about. Tau himself is a glowing red triangle that shimmers and fluctuates on the wall, but he can also control a fleet of cute drones and a murderous death-bot. These variations on his embodiment, or lack thereof, certainly add more interest to the film than if he was purely wall-locked.

Maika Monroe is great as Julia. She’s an actress I’ve enjoyed watching since I first saw her in It Follows and The Guest. As Julia, she has to be smart and physical, often knocked around, hurt and apparently subdued, but always eyeing the next opportunity to make a break for it. It’s interesting to see how her relationship with Tau develops, and this even serves to shine a light on Alex and his own apparent areas of lack. There is food for thought about how many different kinds of “prison” exist, to say the least. And of course, with any A.I film there are feelings of 2001 about it at times, but Gary Oldman voices Tau in a fine manner.

Tau was an enjoyable watch and I found the 90 or so minute runtime passed very nicely. I did feel some of the CGI looked a little second rate however, particularly the murder-bot at times. It was decent enough, but there were moments when it didn’t really “sit” in the environment that well. I did enjoy the animations of “Wall Tau” however, and the drones were good fun. 

If you like escape-based films with a splattering of technology and blood, Tau is well worth checking out on Netflix now.

Rating: 4.5/5