Bird Box is a 2018 American post-apocalyptic horror-thriller film directed by

Susanne Bier, following a screenplay written by Eric Heisserer, and based on the

2014 novel of the same name by Josh Malerman. The film follows the character

Malorie Hayes, played by Sandra Bullock, as she tries to protect herself and two

children from entities that cause people who look at them to die by committing

suicide. Using socio-cultural analysis, this paper shows how the culture in the movie

correlates with Filipino culture.

Filipinos love children. We love kids, we love babies because they bring

happiness and purpose into our lives, they give us new meaning but in this movie,

they are the most vulnerable. The movie started with Malorie giving warnings to

“boy” and “girl” to never take their blindfolds off no matter what the circumstances

are. Then the movie intercuts between two time periods; five years after the end of

the world and the first time when everything collapses. The movie shows more

flashbacks about what happened five years ago. It starts with Malorie and her sister

Jessica. Malorie was unsure about her baby if she will be able to give love and have

a connection with it. The doctor then gives her information about where she can put

her child into adoption and gives it a second thought. Commonly in the Philippines,

adoption is not easy, and having second thoughts or many options as to whether to

keep the baby or not is a luxury that not everyone can afford. In this country, teenage

pregnancy is not rare and considered common.

Filipinos love to talk about what’s happening here and there, the trends and

whatnots. In the film as the scheduled appointment with the obstetrician is finished,

Malorie and Jessica talk about what’s happening on the other side of the world, how

thousands of people commit suicide and go crazy, and as they laughed it off and

joked about it, whatever’s happening on the other side came through there and
caused panic to everyone. In the Philippines, every trend is on the news and social

media but in the case of the film it only lasted for a while, news and other media

outlets did not survive the chaos and the government could not provide safety to the

people as everything crumbled.

Malorie ran as she tried to find a safe place, but she was pushed aside by

people as they tried to secure their own safety. A woman named Lydia came to

assist Malorie, but she died after having a glimpse at one of the demons. Lydia

risked her life, putting aside the severity of the situation. The owner of the house

named Greg came to rescue Malorie, even though Douglas, Lydia’s husband

forbade it. Malorie was welcomed inside the house where it was safe. It was

observed that like Filipinos, people who have the chance to help, even if their life

was at stake, will help, and in this situation, the woman helped the pregnant Malorie

because of her vulnerability.

Furthermore, the movie exhibited how the remaining survivors helped each

other during their crisis. There is another pregnant woman living in the same house

other than Malorie whose name was Olympia. Their relationship strengthened due to

their similar experience of being conceived. It was observed that aside from pregnant

women being prioritized due to their condition, all of them had their own roles in

order to achieve certain goals. Take, for instance, the time when a particular set in

the group went to the grocery store to refill their needs even when it was extremely

perilous to go outside. Similar to the Bayanihan of the Filipinos, they have a culture of

camaraderie and cooperation with one another. Solidarity and cooperation were

prominent in order to achieve goals.

On the flip side, it is not just positive things about us Filipinos that are

conveyed in the movie. In the course of the movie, they went to get groceries using
the car equipped with barriers to protect them from the demonic entities. When they

returned and while the others were distributing the goods they took, Lucy and Felix

stole the car for their own good. The car was their only hope to get groceries but

because of the selfishness of those two, they are unable to anymore. Here in our

country, there are also politicians who are committing crimes like corruption for their

own benefit. Sad to say, politicians, who are needed by our fellow countrymen for us

to become more economically healthy, are the ones that are making trouble. Love for

one's self is beneficial for us, but too much can be dangerous.Another negative thing

that we can see at the movie is that how people tend to drag other people down or

coined in Filipino as "Crab mentality". It can be seen when people who are affected

by the threat of demons are tricking the surviving people to remove their blindfolds

so that they can see the "beautiful" creatures.

The common rule seen in the entire plot was that you are not allowed to look

at the entities lest you suffer going into a spiral of insanity, eventually killing yourself.

We see in the film that the entities are entirely invisible as we do not see any

creatures out of the ordinary that would suggest their existence. This is something

that we would call an unseen danger. This forces our characters throughout the film

to trek the wilderness while wearing blindfolds to avoid experiencing the deadly

effects of seeing the invisible entities. If we are to relate this to Filipinos in a much

lower scale, we can see that a lot of Filipinos these days are greatly misinformed

regarding a lot of things, especially in politics. This is because a lot of them tend to

open their eyes to lies which we can say are the “entities” in the movie. It is also

believed that if mentally-ill people are to look into the entities, they will then proceed

to force others to see the entities as if they are being controlled. We can relate this to

other people who force their “truth” onto others, resulting in a lot of people being
misinformed. If we are to be like the main characters, who tread life carefully and

know when to open our minds and eyes on things, we can save ourselves from the

horrible effects of misinformation.

On the other hand and at the last part of the movie after the obstacles, after

Malorie and the kids travelled for 48 hours in the river, they've finally found the safe

place. It is a sanctuary, a place for blind people. They met Rick, a man they

previously talked on the radio and they was introduced to other people there. Birds

they kept in the box finally flew freely with other birds. It is a sign of hope and

freedom. Filipinos have a strong faith and optimistic. Despite of the challenges they

are facing given by this pandemic, they still manage to be strong.

Filipinos are fighters, we fought for our freedom behind years of imprisonment

and we stand for what we believe in, we work together, stand as one for our nation

and for our loved ones. In this movie, they did faught and work together but it just

that there are times where people just want to give in to darkness and wants to bring

others with them just like the guy from the river who tried to take their blindfolds off

but those who know what is waiting at the end of the road and can see the light in

the darkness will reach their destinations and find save haven.