Suicide isn’t an easy subject. But it’s a key component of the Bird Box films.
No one is entirely sure what has invaded Earth. Some believe the creatures are aliens. Others, angels or demons. But one thing is for sure: If you see these creatures, you’ll either end your own life moments later or become entranced by the beings.
Most survivors have hunkered down, covering up their windows and avoiding the outside world. (Some have even found refuge in bunkers and underground tunnels.) When they do go outside, they cover their eyes with blindfolds so that they won’t spot the beasts by accident.
Unfortunately, while this protects them from the creatures, it also makes them vulnerable to the entranced. Many of these people have now banded together, following instructions from the beasts to seek out and expose the eyes of all those who are still hiding.
Sebastián is one of these few, though he’s working alone.
Following what he thinks is the spirit of his dearly departed daughter, Ana, Sebastián believes that if he “saves” enough people (by forcing them to look upon the creatures), he’ll be reunited with his family in heaven.
But when Sebastián comes across a group of survivors with a little girl about Ana’s age in their group, things start to get hazy.
Sebastián begins to look upon this child as his own, and Ana becomes angry with him. Soon, her spirit (and thus her influence) becomes less pronounced. And Sebastián begins to question if his actions are actually saving others or condemning them.
People put their lives on the line to save others, even strangers. Many survivors come together to form communities that are productive, helpful and kind. We learn that a couple mended their marriage after an extramarital affair. After getting beaten up, a man resists the urge to kill his attackers, since he realizes they are just hungry and searching for food (which he had).
We never see the story’s mysterious creatures onscreen. However, small objects, such as rocks and pieces of broken glass, float in the air wherever the beings are present. People in the vicinity begin to hear the voices of their loved ones encouraging them to remove their blindfolds and (once removed) to end their lives. And animals become frantic whenever the creatures are near.
Many of the people who become entranced say that the creatures are beautiful. A priest is among these, and he posits that the beings are angels. (Though others suggest they could be aliens or even quantum beings.) He considers the beings to be a miracle and a sign from God. And he takes it as his duty to “save” people by exposing them to the creatures. (Later, he states that he’s the “right hand of the Lord” following God’s “will.”)
Sebastián also follows this thinking, describing the creatures as seraphim, angels so beautiful that none can look upon them directly except God. His beliefs are so strong that when people die after witnessing the beings, he imagines a ball of light rising into the sky (which Ana’s spirit tells him are their souls ascending to heaven).
Ana calls her father a “shepherd,” and she refers to the people hiding from the creatures as “lost sheep.” A few scenes take place inside churches. Sebastián goes to confession (though there’s no priest to absolve him). A man references the stories of Moses and Job from the Bible. Someone quotes Matthew 7:15.
Before the attacks, there’s a cross hanging on the rearview mirror of Sebastián’s car. Ana attends a Catholic school. She recites the “Hail Mary” prayer in earnest when she is frightened. We learn that Sebastián and his wife gave Ana a seraphim necklace for her first communion.
[Spoiler Warning] As the film progresses and Sebastián begins to question his actions, he stops seeing the souls. It becomes clear that he isn’t seeing Ana’s spirit but actually a hallucination caused by the creatures. And it’s suggested by scientists that those exposed to the creatures suffer such a severe trauma that it alters their brains’ chemical makeup, thus explaining the mass suicides and the strange actions of the entranced.
We learn that a man’s wife had an affair. When they are surrounded by the creatures, the man hears the voices of his wife and her lover together. Another woman hears the voice of her romantic partner, who was also a woman.
A married couple kisses.
Much like the first Bird Box film (which came out in 2018), viewers witness people commit suicide. They leap from high places to their deaths. Someone hangs himself. A man slices his throat with a piece of glass. A woman puts her head against a spinning tire. Someone stabs himself repeatedly in the gut. People bash their heads in. Other corpses indicate different types of deaths, including poisoning and drowning.
But this isn’t the only violence we witness or hear about. Those who are entranced subdue their victims with brutal force (one man is hit in the leg by a speeding motorcycle and another is tackled to the ground). We hear about people being “dragged” outside to witness the creatures. Often, they string people up like some sort of trophy before forcing their eyes open. When one of them discovers an entranced man who isn’t following the creatures’ orders, she attempts to gouge out his eyes with her thumbs. And you could also argue that since they know most people will end their lives after viewing the beasts, forcing them to do so is a type of murder.
Victims do attempt to fight back against the entranced. When a man attempts to drive a bus full of people outside, the passengers attack the driver, hitting him and even clawing at his face. (Though the bus eventually crashes outside and turns over, badly injuring most of the people inside.) An entranced woman gets thrown off a building’s scaffolding to her death during a fight. A man blows up a car to stop attackers approaching. Two men are stabbed by a metal pole during an encounter, killing them both.
A few blind people (who are immune to the effects of the creatures) attack Sebastián, stealing his supply of food. Later, he receives stitches for a cut they inflicted. A man with scars where his eyes ought to be explains that he mutilated his eye sockets with a knife when his camp was attacked by entranced. We see a brand on a man’s hand that he inflicted himself.
Many people are hit and killed by speeding vehicles during the chaos and panic that ensues when the creatures first arrive. Some who attempt to end their lives inadvertently kill others in the process. One guy sets himself on fire in a pool of gasoline, causing an overturned bus to explode (and killing the people still trapped inside). We hear about conductors who purposely crashed their trains. Some people are accidentally pushed onto subway tracks as the train approaches. And still others are killed and injured by explosions and crashes.
Sebastián hallucinates, thinking that Ana is bleeding heavily from her scalp. A dog bites a man on the hand, and the wound later becomes heavily infected. A young girl almost falls from a great height, but she’s saved by a woman. Several armed military men guard a castle.
Many birds fly into glass windows, killing them, when the creatures approach. Several rats are injected with an experimental vaccine before being exposed to one of the creatures. (One of the creatures and an entranced man are also held captive for these experiments.)
We hear about a man who suffered from depression and took his life before the creatures ever arrived.
We hear about 20 uses of the f-word (some preceded by “mother”) and five uses of the s-word. God’s name is misused three times, and Jesus’ name is abused three more. We also hear a few uses each of “a–hole” and “b–ch.”
During confession, Sebastián admits to taking the Lord’s name in vain.
[Note: This Spanish film is available either with English overdubs or English subtitles.]
None.
As many people take their lives throughout the film, bystanders do little to nothing to stop them or save them. Children in one scene hide at the back of their classroom after their teacher takes her life.
People lie. (One man confesses to lying but justifies it since he believes he was saving people.) Someone betrays many people to their deaths. A man acts rudely toward those from other countries and toward those with lower paying jobs than himself.
When the Bird Box (starring Sandra Bullock) arrived on Netflix in 2018, there was an underlying message of hope and love. Bullock’s character, Malory, learned that life isn’t just about living. Because without hope and love, Plugged In reviewer Paul Asay wrote, “we live in fear and despair, if we live at all.”
In comparison to the original story, Bird Box: Barcelona falls short.
The only lesson learned by the main character here is that he isn’t “chosen,” he’s just “broken.” A grieving father manipulated into believing that he can be reunited with his daughter if he helps “free” the souls of others.
And unfortunately, “freeing” others involves forcing them to set their eyes upon creatures that will steer them toward suicide or homicide.
Sure, Sebastián eventually realizes how he’s been manipulated, but there are some really serious problems surrounding even that.
First, Sebastián is Catholic. And the creatures are able to trick him because of his belief in God and angels. Moreover, the main villain here (another human agent of the creatures) is Sebastián’s former priest, who earnestly believes that he’s working as God’s “humble servant.”
It becomes pretty clear that the creatures have nothing to do with God or angels, but it still leaves a bad taste in the mouth for any viewers who might have been victimized in the name of religion.
Then, of course, there’s the story’s brutal content. Most of the deaths we see on screen are the result of suicide. That’s not an easy thing to watch ever. Let alone repeatedly, in many different ways. It’s intense. And because there’s no underlying message of hope in this film, the death here feels exponentially worse than the first film.
It feels superfluous to even mention the film’s profane language and other forms of violence at this point. But those problems lurk here, too. And these disturbing elements should be heavily considered before pressing play on this Bird Box flick.
Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.
