Bird Box by Josh MalermanMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I watched the movie and then read the book a few hours later, and it was a fantastic decision. They felt fresh and distinct in how they each show different possibilities and angles on the same basic story which acts as a unifier between the two halves, resulting in a magnificent whole. I suspect the order in which I consumed these played a big role in my enjoyment, since, yes, the book was better. I’ll use this opportunity to compare the book to the movie as a way to illustrate what this book did really well, and then what the movie was able to improve on. I’ll start with the former.
Bird Box is a horror. Plain and simple. Its concept is deeply rooted in exploiting the character’s and reader/viewer’s fear of the unknown. Specifically: What we cannot see. Therein lies the simple problem with making a film adaptation: How does one portray an inherently unseeable horror through an inherently visual medium? Unfortunately I don’t think the movie succeeded in overcoming this.
The “monsters” were scarier in the book. In the movie the monsters weren’t scary because we could see too much, and so it made me feel safe and like they weren’t a threat. They were never indicated as having any kind of physical body, only as wind, which didn’t seem dangerous since it made the characters seem untouchable. It made me feel like the characters were safe behind their blindfolds. In the book, however, the creatures are physical beings which mean they present the possibility of being a physical threat. Yet, we still never saw them in the book. If anything, we saw even less, which made it all the more terrifying. I was finally not only just as blind as the characters, but also experiencing it alongside them with their exact thoughts and feelings and senses. The constant presence of the creatures combined with an overwhelming sense of uncertainty and fear of the unknown made the situations so much more intense, terrifying, and suspenseful in the book.
Reading this book literally made me feel pain in my chest and stomach all throughout its 260 pages, whereas I only remember one moment in the movie where I felt real fear for the characters. They should have went by way of a very high production audiobook instead of a movie—with a full score, cast, sound effects and everything—while keeping the film script. Hey, I wonder if just watching the movie blindfolded would be scarier...
Lastly: The ending. The movie was entertaining, had some tension despite not being all that scary, and had a good story and characters, so I enjoyed it. However, when it ended it left me wondering “What was the point?” Almost like an idea was presented but not fully explored. Like, oh, okay, that happened… So what? This is probably another reason why I couldn’t wait to read what the novel had to say about all this. The book ended with basically the same scene, but somehow did it better. It’s my job to tell you why and what made it better, but I honestly have no clue.
Like I said, the movie did good by the characters, which is actually the one thing it managed to do even better than the book. Especially in how they wrote the main character, Malorie.
Her character was very altered in the movie compared to the book, but it was a very necessary change. You see, in the book, Malorie… Didn’t really have a personality, and there was nothing interesting about her. She was very much just a blank slate that this terrible circumstance just so happened to fall unto. However, if I hadn’t already watched the movie I don’t think I would have even noticed this. Even though there are a number of characters, this isn’t a character driven story. Since the characters are not the reason this was a fantastic horror novel, this aspect doesn’t really matter or negatively impact it.
The movie, however, could not rely on the horror angle since there wasn’t much of one. Because it wasn’t scary, it needed to have characters with strong personalities to keep things moving and interesting, and to keep viewers invested in their well beings. The movie gave Malorie interests and skills, a troubled past and personality, and made her more assertive. In the book, since she had none of these things, she often looked weak and lost and was constantly relying on Tom for support and guidance. This is something that would not have had an impact had my reading experience been fresh, but since it wasn’t, I can’t help but see how Malorie’s characterisation in the movie was so much more fleshed out, real, and interesting.
Overall: Good stuff! Really great, actually, especially through this dual medium experience. I wasn’t expecting to read something this good so close to the end of the year…
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