Double Trouble #12: Bird Box vs IO

Welcome everyone to the 12th Double Trouble Segment here at You Can’t Unwatch It. If you don’t know what Double Trouble is, Daniel or I will watch 2 movies back to back and then we review them in the same review. This review however contains 2 movies that I didn’t literally see back to back but are both ones that surprised me as being something wholly different from my expectations based off the trailers and advertising. Those two movies are the Netflix originals Bird Box & Io: Last On Earth. They are definitely not what they seem.

There *may* be some spoilers ahead.

First up is: Bird Box

Bird Box, based off the book of the same name by Josh Malerman, stars Sandra Bullock as Malorie, a rather reclusive artist whose only real connection to the outside world is her sister Jessica played by Sarah Paulson. From the outset, you learn that Jessica and Malorie grew up in a less than happy home and each have felt the effects of it in their adult life. But while Jessica seems to have grown into a functional and very kind adult which you can see through the care and attention she gives to Malorie, Malorie struggles with an emotional deficit and is unable to create and maintain a healthy relationship with anyone. This struggle shows very clearly in her art and in her unwillingness to accept that soon she will be a mother. She literally cannot feel a connection to the child growing within herself and seriously considers (for the baby’s sake) to place the baby for adoption just before the world falls apart.

Bird Box reminded me immediately of the less than popular and unintentionally hysterical “The Happening” by M. Night Shyamalan. The Happening was plagued with poor dialogue, the most awkward acting and an explanation of the happening that killed any kind of horror that might have been attached to it. Bird Box, however, was well acted, with fantastic visuals and the feeling of desperation and loss was so real, none of which could be found in The Happening. The creatures in Bird Box never take a solid form (thank heavens for that!) and there is also no explanation given as to what they are or where they come from.  They are psychological horror, a being that toys with your mind, plays to your vulnerabilities and coaxes you with past pains or tempts you with forgotten joys to induce you to end yourself or do harm to others. They are a legitimate physical threat to the remaining survivors but they don’t actually do any physical harm themselves. In the case of Bird Box, we are our own worst enemies, with or without the creatures help.

I have seen many people praise Bird Box as an amazing horror film but I don’t think that is accurate at all. I mean, I don’t think it’s a horror film. When I think of horror or at least modern day horror, everything coming to mind is physical horror: blood and gore, jump scares, eerie costumes, creepy scenery and music and while Bird Box has some eerie settings and there is some gore and blood involved in the story line, it stood out to me as more of a psychological thriller combined with a “coming of age” story as the horror elements are more of a background factor and the real story is about Malorie. I didn’t find myself truly scared by anything in the film though I did feel a sense of intensity, curiosity and urgency at all the right times while the rest of the film was watching Malorie, trying to understand Malorie, wondering what the heck is wrong with Malorie!

Very early on in the film, Malorie loses her last connection to humanity when her sister is taken over by the unseen beings and kills herself and Malorie is forced to take refuge with a bunch of strangers to try and survive.The film is broken up with flashbacks to Malorie’s time in the house with the other survivors and her journey with two children (named Boy and Girl)  towards a safe haven down a dangerous river. Sandra Bullock is a great actress and portrays well a women truly stuck in survival mode while showing how wounded and alone she feels. You can see through her hard shell of indifference and detachment to the woman who desperately wants to love and be loved but because of her troubled childhood and her feelings of abandonment and rejection, she is held back by fear and continues to live in denial of her feelings.

Everyone that Malorie comes in contact with is an embodiment of something that she has lost or something she has sought after. John Malkovich’s Douglas, for example, is a lot like her dismissive and bitter father while Olympia played by Danielle Macdonald is a very sweet and nurturing girl who constantly seeks out Malorie’s company and is very similar to Malorie’s sister Jessica. As the film progresses you see Malorie open up a little and slowly understand and appreciate each person only to have them torn away from her. It’s freaking hurts to watch it happen over and over again.

Part of the anxiety I felt as I watched Bird Box was wondering how long Malorie could last until she snaps. Malorie’s will to survive is impressive. She’s very resourceful and efficient but that drive to survive, combined with her refusal to be vulnerable or to “let anyone in”, leads to some very tense moments in the film especially the ones near the end that involve Boy and Girl. The final moments of the film, where Malorie is faced with losing Boy and Girl (her children!) forever still gives me shivers when I think about it. All the intensity of the film builds to this grand moment of terror when Malorie realizes how much these two people mean to her. It’s hard as a mother for me to watch but I loved every second of it.

Bird Box was an extremely satisfying film for me. Not often are we dropped into horrific cinematic situations like the end of the world and are met with meaningful commentary on the human condition, the deep connection between a mother and her children or what it means to truly have a something to call your own, no matter how you came by it. The performances from the cast show the varying degrees of hope, love, fear and defeat and what each person will let go of, adapt to or overcome in order to survive. You can call it a horror film if you like. I call it a thrilling adventure of self discovery. With a little death on the side.

Next up...Io : Last On Earth

Io is a relatively new release from Netflix and my husband and I watched it over the weekend. Based solely off the trailer I watched on Netflix, I expected IO to be an adventure movie featuring two characters falling in love as they make their final escape from a now toxic Earth. I was almost right.

Io: Last On Earth is like watching The Martian but in reverse. You have a lonely scientist  Sam played by Margaret Qually, a young woman living a solitary life on the nearly deserted and very toxic Earth. But instead of trying to escape the planet, Sam is seeking to prove her father’s hypothesis that human beings are meant to stay behind and adapt to the new Earth as it is “reborn”. However, her constancy to staying and fulfilling his work starts to wane after the arrival of another survivor, Micah (played by Anthony Mackie) who pushes her to make a choice between leaving Earth and surviving on the unknown moon of Jupiter called Io,  or running the risk of dying alone on the Earth she loves so much.

From the outset, the film has a decidedly slow and deliberate pace. We wander with Sam through the toxic zone looking for supplies and samples for her research. We watch her as she works in her quiet and determined manner in her garden, caring for her bees, running experiments and writing letters to her love Elon on Io. Her home, which is just outside the toxic zone and looks down into the toxic valley below, is solitary but warm, a stark contrast to the desolate, decrepit and cold environment of the toxic zone. When Micah joins her at her little homestead, you get the feeling that Sam feels more complete with him there and a relationship quickly develops between the two. She agrees to take the last Exodus shuttle with him to Io but there is something that is holding her back from really leaving Earth behind once and for all.

In her solitude, Sam has developed a strong interest in mythology, even taking special trips into the toxic zone to get books on it from the library and Micah, who has an understanding of the material she so loves, only fuels her interest in the subject and in himself. The film draws a parallel between Sam and Micah with Plato’s theory of the original human nature--that we were once two beings in one, torn apart by the gods and always seeking our other half-- and to Sam’s own purpose of adapting to and saving the Earth to the story of Leda & the Swan, a prose that Sam had been obsessing over for sometime but didn’t understand the meaning of until Micah arrived.

As I watched Io, I thought about what solitude does to a person. How it can change you and make you think and desire things that make little sense to those who have connections with other living beings. Though Sam had been living a lonely life on Earth and there is a connection with and a certain future waiting for her on Io with Micah, she doesn’t see death on Earth as everyone else does but sees life. She had spent years working alone on the planet, building up an immunity to the new environment and with her work, in her mind at least, she is Leda, giving birth to the gods, new humans who can not just survive on Earth but thrive. Because of this, she cannot leave it behind, not even for Micah. Human beings are odd things, finding comfort, solace and purpose in the oddest places and what makes us tick and makes us thrive is what makes us unique. And stubborn.

I haven’t come across many positive reviews for this film and that’s unfortunate because it isn’t a bad one at all. I might have been expecting a “rush to the escape pod” kind of movie but I wasn’t disappointed in what I was met with. Io wasn’t rife with drama, which I prefer and it wasn’t fueled by intense action which is all too common and, honestly, exhausting. I’m not sure what great height people think the creators were trying to reach with Io or if some grand idea was intended for it but I enjoyed watching it all the same and didn’t search for a grander meaning beyond that which was placed before me. I liked the slower pace and the lack of distracting music, dialogue and drama and I found the parallels between humanity and mythology interesting. I will say that the acting isn’t Oscar worthy though it’s not by any means terrible and I’m also not saying that this movie is an amazing work of art. Just that’s it’s interesting and is worthy of at least 1 watch. If you do, however, want a deep study on loneliness, seclusion or a film focused solely on what happened to the Earth or something with a greater intensity, Io is not the film for you. Watch The Martian for something more serious and intense or Wall-E, if cutesy is your thing, as they have similar themes and are both fantastic productions.

Now comes the part when I am supposed to recommend what you should watch between Bird Box and Io. I think I will base my choice off of my husband's reaction to the films and recommend that you watch Bird Box. The narrative for Bird Box is clearer, it is more exciting and the performances from the actors exceeds that of Io.

Until next time: Once You Watch It, You Can’t Unwatch It

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