Yep, it's a big fat baby. Bird Box has been a huge hit for Netflix, despite -- or maybe because of -- the fact that it never shows the deadly monsters in question. Sandra Bullock already said the creature they made for her pregnant lead character Malorie was a green snake-like man with a horrific baby face, and it was more funny than frightening. Since the objective wasn't to make people laugh, they cut the monster out of the horror movie. But special effects artist Andy Bergholtz recently shared some photos of what Malorie's creature could've looked like:
Andy Bergholtz shared those photos with some behind-the-scenes notes, then the images were deleted from Instagram. But The Brag salvaged the images, and TheWrap shared what Bergholtz had revealed about them.
Considering her pregnant state and emotional arc thru the movie, the producers felt Sandra's nightmare would have something to do with a twisted, demonic baby creature attacking her (that's as much as I could gather about the context of the scene anyway). I sculpted at least three or four variations on the design before it was approved, which began as a more aggressive, monstery look and was revised to be a bit more subtle in the end. In the end, I actually really liked the movie and think it was better off NOT showing the makeup. Kudos to the director for sticking to her guns on that one.
Screenwriter Eric Heisserer had previously said he was basically forced to write a scene where Malorie has a kind of nightmare sequence seeing her own monster. One of the producers had insisted they show something, he said. Director Susanne Bier said they spent a lot of energy filming the scene, but insisted they cut it because she realized it was going to be more funny than tense. Sandra Bullock herself said the "long fat baby" just made her laugh.
As Susanne Bier further explained to Bloody Disgusting:
Whatever those beings are, they tap into your deepest fear. Everybody's deepest fear is going to be different from the other person. I think to suddenly take upon a concrete shape in order to illustrate that becomes weak. Where the conceit is really strong, then trying to illustrate it is kind of almost meaningless. So it would have been the wrong decision.
Creature designer Andy Bergholtz said the monsters would look different for each person, based on their fears, leading them to take their own lives. He also said that Malorie's particular monster wouldn't really have looked like a snake-like green man, an actor in a spandex green-screen suit was supposed to portray a giant CGI creature with a monstrous body to be added later.
Either way, it sounds like everything turned out much better to just have the monsters be hinted to through things like crazy Gary's (Tom Hollander) drawings.
Bird Box set a 7-day viewing record for Netflix, and Nielsen backed up some of its big numbers. Socially, the show has done exceptionally well, creating new memes, and lauching the #BirdBoxChallenge until it threatened to get out of hand and Netlfix had to jump in to ask fans to be careful. And the house where Malorie initially takes refuge has apparently become a tourist hot spot.
Bird Box is now streaming on Netflix. Susanne Bier explained that one surprise about the ending, but played coy on a potential sequel. For now, here's what else you can look forward to on Netflix in 2019.
