BIRD BOX: BARCELONA (2023)

BIRD BOX: BARCELONA (2023)

Tagline: Are You Ready to See?

(Mystery, Horror, No Peaking)[R]

Note: This movie was not given a rating by the MPA. On streaming services, it gets a TV-MA which is typically a [R] due to profanity, etc. 

In this one a mysterious unseen force starts causing people that open their eyes outside or can see sunlight through a window to go blind. Viewing the unseen causes the victim to go crazy and commit suicide. Claire is part of a group that has managed to stay indoors away from the beings using blindfolds and walking sticks to go out and get supplies. Set in Barcelona the streets have become more and more dangerous and it becomes clear unseen beings are not the only threat. 

Basically, if something starts floating in this movie and you see it, it’s pretty much too late. I never saw the original BIRD BOX, it really didn’t interest me, because pulling off a credible invisible enemy in a storyline is pretty tough and usually ends up feeling like a cop-out for having a low budget. I am not sure but this thing comes across as having a very “we borrowed this from the Bible” storyline to it. If you haven’t seen the first movie, at least for me, it took about half the run time before I figured out what was what, then they just straight up tell you what is going on. 

I have seen a lot of reviews stating that there is no one to root for in this thing, but that isn’t the case. The movie actually starts out just completely taking a nose dive into “Wow this sucks” before the pilots start to pull up on the wheel and right the plane. Metaphorically speaking. What we don’t actually get in this storyline is a real beginning or ending. So if you are that person that can just watch the middle of a film and then turn it off, this thing is for you. It feels like there were a lot of wasted opportunities here, but the first goal of writing should be to start at the freaking beginning and if you are going to do flashbacks don’t just do them for the secondary characters. 

Cinematically Directors Dave and Alex Pastor pull off a gem here. The locations are great, the lighting is effective, and the camera angles bring a lot to the production. We do get a lot of action in this one, but for me, it never really felt like a horror movie. It felt kind of like something you would see in an episode of MANIFEST or THE 4400. That is actually why I am reviewing it now instead of October which is typically the only month I write horror movie reviews for. 

Acting wise this is a strong outing for Mario Casas (CROSS THE LINE) who I think gets challenged quite a bit in this one emotionally. Georgina Campbell (KING ARTHUR: LEGEND OF THE SWORD) crushes it as Claire but that isn’t unusual for her, she’s an amazing actress, and more importantly for this story, she plays a great character. I haven’t seen any of her other work, but Naila Schuberth does a solid job as Sofia. I love it when a movie can have a child actor or actress that doesn’t come across as so annoying it’s hard to watch. This is also a good one out of Leonardo Sbaraglia who plays Father Esteban. I thought he captured the essence of what he was asked to portray superbly. 

I do wish they had spent more time developing the characters and waxing philosophic on the ideas behind what these beings are, why they showed up an all of that, but this is a mystery so I guess they can do what they want. I did not hate this thing as much as a lot of other people did, but it still landed at the 50th spot on my top movies of 2023 list out of 67, so you can take that 1 of 2 ways. Either there were just a bunch of solid flicks out this year, or, this thing is actually still pretty rough. 

For production and the performances, I have to give this thing a 4 out of 7, but I think in a year, most people are going to kind of forget about this one. There are too many TV shows and other films that top it. 

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