Bird Box took Netflix by storm over the holidays.
In the film, Sandra Bullock is one of the survivors of a worldwide phenomenon in which treachurous entities inflict madness upon people who see them.
To survive, she and the others — including two children — blindfold themselves almost all of the time.
She also takes a box of birds small birds with her. The birds alert her when the entities are nearby.
Viewers were haunted by what they saw. Even celebrities were not immune.
Others were merely perplexed or critical.
And a lot of them were downright thirsty.
Take a look:
Let’s start with the Crowned Queen of Twitter
Chrissy Teigen could just as easily have had this nightmare after watching Netflix’s The Dragon Prince, if fan theories are correct, but she makes it very clear that this deeply anxious dream came from Bird Box.
She watched the film as a mother
Children in peril can be a powerful motivator for audiences — thoughs some see it as a cheap and manipulative tactic, others see it as a vital component of telling a good suspense story.
Chrissy’s no stranger to horror, either
Even devoted horror fans have their weaknesses, and Bird Box got to Chrissy.
There’s a lot to process
Sometimes examining a story for what appears to be problems with worldbuilding can be a welcome distraction from absolute terror. For Zelda Williams and John Legend, it’s also just part of consuming media.
Movies can stay with you
Clearly, Chrissy is still recovering.
But enough about terror; let’s talk about THIRST
Trevante Rhodes played Tom in Bird Box. As a fellow survivor, he and Malorie end up forming a close bond … before he sacrifices himself to save her and her children.
Everyone had eyes for Tom
We can’t tell if this tweet is praising the birds or shading the film. Birds can be delicate creatures.
Tom was irresistible
This gif gets us every time
How did Malorie control herself?
Sandra Bullock is 54 years old, even though she doesn’t look it. But her character, at least, is a mother of young children and still able to give birth.
Tom sacrificed himself
People were so sad
It was definitely a heroic end
But that just made it sadder, let’s be real
Tom’s death was also a little problematic
When a black man sacrifices his life for a white woman, audiences are going to notice. It’s not something that can never happen in stories, but it’s something of which storytellers and viewers should be conscious. A lot of audiences are very tired of seeing their representation killed off to advance someone else’s story.
Some saw his death coming but had hoped they were wrong
If you don’t recognize Tiffany New York Pollard or immediately know that she’s saying “not you” in a tone of serious disappointment, then someone in your life has failed you.
Even in the tense thriller, some moments were funny
You’re obviously looking at a fusion of two different videos here, and the results are extremely funny.
A lot of people talked about the driving
Love Bird Box or hate it, but it’s a goldmine of memes.
Then it was time to talk about Malorie’s kids
This uncomfortable gif really captures how divided audiences were. Some feared for the safety of the children, others were frustrated by those few times when the kids demonstrated independence. Some reviewers compared the children to mannequins, noting that they seemed like extensions of Malorie instead of actual characters.
The boat scene got a lot of attention
WTF indeed.
Some sided with Girl
It was a weird situation for everyone
And the memes keep coming
When opening your eyes can cause you to take your own life, you’d rather keep your eyes shut.
And now it’s time to talk about Olympia
She should have listened to Douglas and had her baby. Instead, she let Gary into the house, and Gary opened the windows and a lot of people died.
Olympia was one of the ones who died
Seeing someone jump through a window to their death caused a lot of Twitter to comment
Why. Did. She. Look.
The Simpsons has been on for something like 1,000 years. Plenty of good meme material.
They even brought Creepy Wax Miley into this
Great, now we’re going to have nightmares from the movie AND from this image.
Don’t try this one at home
Olympia’s actress did not actually fling herself to her death, but the internet is full of videos of absolute idiots jumping and injuring themselves.
Betheny Frankel should absolutely be a horror movie protagonist
Real Housewives make for some of the best memes.
And, of course, The Office
Critics may be divided, but a lot of people enjoyed Bird Box. Even some of the folks who didn’t admit that the idea of the film really stuck with them — even if some of the worldbuilding seemed sloppy or inexplicable.