Bird Box: movie vs.

book

Josh Malerman's novel Bird Box sent nearly instant ripples through the literary community
upon its publication in 2014, with fans and critics alike touting it as one of the finest horror
books of the 21st century. It received nominations for the James Herbert Award and the
Bram Stoker Award for best debut novel, while Publisher's Weekly even compared
Malerman to Stephen King, with several other reviews echoing the sentiment.
A film adaptation naturally got underway. It took four years for Bird Box to see the light of
day, arriving in the form of a Netflix original film that also played in select theaters around
the country.
Early reviews have been mixed, with some critics claiming the film is nothing more than A
Quiet Place knockoff—a faulty argument because, one, Malerman's book came out well
before A Quiet Place hit screens in 2018, and two, besides the obvious parallels of
mysterious creatures, using sensory elements as a vehicle for terror, and terrifying birthing
scenes, the two narratives have very little in common. The beforementioned King, moreover,
believes the negative reviews had more to do with streaming platform snobbery than the
film's merits, of which he insists are plentiful.
At least in this writer's opinion, King's assessment is correct: Bird Box as a film is taut, tense,
emotionally rich, and psychologically dense. Compared to Malerman's novel, it stands on its
own, a decidedly visual and aural experience, as cinema should be.
The netflix film Bird Box was directed by Susanne Bier .The film follows a woman, played by
Sandra Bullock, who, along with a pair of children, dubbed Boy and Girl, must make it
through a forest and river blindfolded to avoid supernatural entities which cause people who
see them to either die by suicide or force others to look.
Both the book and the movie had a great succes captivating the audience/readers. While the
two are similar, the book is even darker than the movie.

The apocalypse is slower

The apocalypse in the book happens over a more extended period. It begins to occur
gradually in pockets and finally consumes the world over a time period. The film, however,
shows us news about the chaos in Russia and by midday it hits all of the USA and people
begin to go crazy. It’s understandable why the movie chose this path, the story needed to be
told in 90 minutes. They needed to cut to the chase, but it does cause a sudden surge of info
for the viewers and leaves us little time to align with the panic.
Jessica's death is different in the novel.
In the film version, Jessica is driving Malorie home from her OBGYN appointment when she
sees one of the monsters and crashes the car, then dies by suicide after stepping in front of
an oncoming bus.The book has Jessica survive for three months while holed up in the
apartment with Malorie before she accidentally sees one of the creatures and dies by suicide
in the bathroom.

Malorie’s pregnancy
In the book, Malorie is just pregnant as the wave of terror begins to sweep. With time, she
approaches her due date. In the film, we see a Malorie who’s almost due. This too connects
to the previous point. Her pregnancy was accelerated to adapt to the sudden wave of terror.
Also, Malorie’s guy in the book becomes unreachable after her pregnancy. Which pointed
more in the direction of “he got killed” rather than “he bailed on her”. The movie sees a
cynical Malorie because she was abandoned by her partner.

Death of Tom
In the novel, Gary causes everyone’s death, including Tom. No one but Malorie and the
babies survive. She brings up the kids all by herself in the house. There is no romantic
relationship with Tom. Her being alone and afraid is what makes her name the children Boy
and Girl as she believes that anything more than survival is a luxury. In the book, Tom is
shown to be someone who inspires Malorie because of his survival skills. She feeds off the
inspiration to survive when she’s left alone. In the film, after everyone else in the house dies,
we see Malorie and Tom living together for 5 years after which he dies because of the group
of psychos. In spite of her companionship, Malorie, in the film, is cynical and believes that
names are a luxury.

Preparing for the river

In the book, soon after everyone is dead and Malorie has given birth, she is contacted by
Rick. But at that point, she is with infants and is no position to leave on a boat. She spends
the years ahead training the kids up until the point she believes they are ready to take that
ride on the river. In the movie, Rick makes contact when the children are all grown up.
Malorie doesn’t want to leave initially, she feels it might be a trap. But after Tom dies,
Malorie feels it’s the only chance that they have. Though we are shown some training that
she’s giving the kids, it’s not as extensive in the movie.
The kid’s blindfolds and their heightened senses
In the novel, the blindfolds never come off. Ever. The kids are born into darkness. They grow
up without using their sight. This makes their other senses really sharp. The kids are able to
“hear” the differences in Malorie’s breathing to say if she’s anxious. It is the kids who enable
Malorie to make the journey. Through their sharp hearing, they become her eyes. The movie
doesn’t focus much on the kids, they remain as liabilities. For a short moment towards the
end, the kids help with following the sound of the birds, but that’s about it.

The birds’ reaction to the creatures

In the book, we are told that the birds react to anybody or anything when near them – it
could be a survivor or a creature. Tom hangs the birds outside of the house as a lookout. In
theory, throughout the stay in the house, the birds are doing okay. However, they are not
immune to the creatures. They do go insane and kill each other and die towards the end.
Also, when they are close to the destination, there is a sequence where hundreds of birds go
insane and kill themselves creating a rain of dead birds. The movie shows that the birds react
only to the proximity of the monsters (or the psychos) but don’t go crazy themselves. The
birds are kept protected inside the house and don’t play much of a part in human survival.
However, they are shown to be a symbol of hope and make it alive to the end. Only at the
safe haven, in the end, we see that the birds provide a warning when the creatures are close.

The crazy people

The book only theorizes the fact that people who are insane might not end up killing
themselves. And Gary comes around and proves that theory. We don’t have squads of crazy
people running around and claiming “cleansing”, unlike the film which tells us that there is
an exclusive set of people who are happy to see the creatures and want everybody to see
them too.

The Rapids
The book does not have a rapids section in the river. It’s just a long, tedious journey that
they take after years of preparing for it. There is a point in the river where it splits into 4
parts. Malorie takes off her blindfold to choose the right direction. The movie has Malorie
and the kids going through rapids. They end up doing this with their blindfolds on and end
up tumbling into the waters and making it over to the other side.
Intentionally blinded people
When Malorie makes it to the safe haven, she learns that the place is where there were
initially blind people. But she also discovers that many of the residents there have
intentionally blinded themselves and their children to survive. Malorie thinks that she and
her children are going to be made blind by force, but then Rick confirms that people have a
choice. The movie talks about no such thing. The place has both blind people and the ones
with vision who somehow made it there.