Since its highly acclaimed release, Netflix’s “Bird Box” captivates audiences through its suspenseful plot and the seemingly endless spiral of its characters and the world around them. The film quickly thrusts audiences into the turmoil and terror of watching a seemingly normal society decay into utter devastation as droves of people inexplicably commit suicide – the frenzied mania leaves the survivors fearful of even looking at the chaos as it unfolds around them unless they too wish to fall victim to the nameless and shapeless force that spawns the most unfathomable death: suicide.
(UPCOMING SPOILERS ALERT)
“Bird Box” primarily follows the life (and many, many near-death moments) of a woman named Malorie, played by Sandra Bullock, who must somehow survive in a post-apocalyptic world to reach a compound that promises safety from the unseen supernatural entities that cause people to commit suicide upon sight. However, Malorie must reach the compound with two children simply named “Boy” and “Girl”. As a psychological thriller that uses suicide as its impetus it is difficult to somehow avoid seeing the “unseen” while watching “Bird Box” and drawing parallels between our present society and mental health issues. From the moment Mallory tragically loses her sister after the mass suicides begin to the final scenes of the film where the blindfolds are finally removed, “Bird Box” is filled with tragic and shocking features that further echoes reactions and relationships to mental health in society, especially when the realities of anxiety, mania, and suicide can (and do, as in “Bird Box”) come with deadly and dark consequences.
The relationship suicide and anxiety share in “Bird Box” is shown through the experiences Mallory has throughout her journey to the sanctuary. When the mass suicides are first introduced by Mallory’s sister via a news broadcast, Jessica (Sarah Paulson), Mallory is painting an image of people surrounded by black paint and simply turns off the television and passively changes the conversation. Jessica then begins to bring up Mallory’s pregnancy which is also deflected by Mallory’s blasé attitude. This negligence to her own life events and the threats to the life of others reveals a key feature about Mallory’s role; her experiences are like the various stages of grief as in the beginning of the film she is experiencing her own unique “grief” over her impending motherhood which causes her discomfort and anxiety. This denial stage later escalates to shock when Mallory and her sister are speeding away from the hospital after an outbreak of mass suicides and Jessica sees one of the invisible monsters and crashes the car to kill herself, ultimately leaving Mallory as an injured and shocked pregnant woman to fend for herself. After the sudden shift from emotional apathy to shock, the confusion of emotions and increasing anxiety leads Mallory to…
Anger. After finding refuge in a home of various strangers who sought refuge from the chaos outside, Mallory isolates herself and immediately becomes the target of aggression for Gregory who blames her for the death of his wife, Lydia, who left the house in an attempt to save Mallory but killed herself by walking into a burning car. Aside from her coarse interactions with other members in the house, Mallory begins to display more instances of outward aggression: in one scene, she is the first to grab a shotgun when a survivor from the outside is banging on the door of the home to be let inside. In a conversation with Gregory, they trade insults over glasses of whiskey but also gain an understanding of each other and why they are so emotionally distant and callous when compared to some of the other survivors in the house. As a means to cope with her own anxiety, Mallory uses this anger to build emotional walls even at times when the weight of how dire and bleak the reality of the post-apocalyptic would demand some form of emotional warmth to fuel the will to live for others.
The prospect of living in a post-apocalyptic world while pregnant is something that fills Mallory with anxiety about the future of her pregnancy and possibly the life of her child. When another pregnant woman named Olympia (Danielle Macdonald) attempts to bond with Mallory by talking about pregnancy and motherhood, Mallory abruptly excuses herself, obvious unsettled by the attempt at emotional “closeness”. However, after wandering the house Mallory runs into other survivors (Rosa Salazar and Colson Baker) sharing their own form of intimacy in a laundry room which causes Mallory to slam the door in surprise. When she turns around, another survivor named Tom (Trevante Rhodes) also witnessed the embarrassing ordeal and both burst out into laughter. This rare moment of lightheartedness in “Bird Box” reveals humor to Mallory at the simple desperation of human emotion during the apocalypse but also inadvertently begins her transition to somehow building her own relationship with Tom.
The budding relationship with Tom that Mallory experiences brings her grief and coping mechanism with anxiety into what is known as the “bargaining” stage of grief. Although Mallory is still in some ways overwhelmed about her own pregnancy (which also highlights her mortality as a pregnant woman during an apocalypse of all things) she begins to reach out through small sentimental acts and builds relationships with those around her. Almost serving as an inadvertent but purposeful “emotional support animal”, the birds that Mallory adopt after a supply run bring her some form of relief as they warn her when the invisible monsters are near. Additionally, although she initially was emotionally cold and rejected Olympia’s sentiment towards baby names and imagining their children’s’ future, Mallory brings Olympia a small cat doll as a gift to give to her daughter. This moment that Mallory takes to give Olympia hope is not left unparalleled by the moment she unintentionally takes hope away when she later scolds Tom for telling the children about a story from his normal, pre-apocalyptic childhood when going outside didn’t mean risking an instant, self-inflicted death. In some ways, Mallory is bargaining her vulnerability both as a human being risking death but also as a mother risking the lives of children in addition to her own by choosing when she expresses kindness. This is difficult to watch in the film under the context of mental health as it ultimately illuminates the struggle as fear serves as a fodder for anxiety which inhibits Mallory for developing emotionally with those who can provide emotional support for her.
Although it is never explained what the invisible forces make people see or feel to cause otherwise unaffected people to suddenly commit suicide, it is important to note the difference in what the invisible forces represent. In the beginning of the film, Jessica’s voice is panicked when she first is influenced by the monster to crash the car (“What the hell is that?!”) where in comparison Olympia when she is forcibly exposed to see the monster she says (“Oh, you don’t seem all that bad”) before throwing herself out of a window. The differences in triggers and the emotional drive behind them is very similar to many issues in mental health as it reflects that fear and anxiety can take on a variety of forms independent of a situation and very individual to a person which ultimately, in the case of suicide, onlookers might not understand.
Overall, through the story of Mallory and how she survives the apocalypse, “Bird Box” opens dialogue about anxiety, depression, grief, and suicide that can prove to be productive to better understanding mental health and the unseen forces that drive our emotions. By understanding ourselves, being willing to be vulnerable, and listening more critically to the “inner voices” that feed on both desires and fears people struggling with mental health can find a sanctuary in knowing the concept of self before all else.
The Urbane Verge 