Back in 2018, Sandra Bullock put on a blindfold and delivered one of Netflix's most effective horror-thrillers with Bird Box. Huge hit, great concept, and yeah, the kind of movie that makes you want to shut your curtains forever. Fun wrinkle: she made it with her kids in mind... and also won’t let them watch it anytime soon.
She made it for her kids, but they can’t watch it yet
In a SAG Conversations interview (as picked up by Stuff.co), Bullock said the whole project started because her son kept asking why she never made anything for them. So she did. Then she took one look at the finished product and decided: absolutely not for little eyes right now. Her nine-year-old, specifically, has to wait. Honestly, fair.
Why she said yes to Bird Box
The hook for Bullock wasn’t the survival gimmick so much as the moral math: a mother choosing what she sees as the lesser evil by emotionally distancing herself to keep her kids alive. She even talked about it during her MTV Movie & TV Awards acceptance speech, framing the role as a tough-love scenario she had to wrap her head around.
"If these movie kids were my children, would I cut myself off from them emotionally to keep them alive? The answer is yes. I've never had to do that, but yes."
That internal debate is what gives the movie its edge: it’s not just monsters and blindfolds; it’s a parent making choices that might save lives and wreck relationships at the same time.
About that sequel everyone keeps asking for
Bird Box ends on a hopeful note, but the story doesn’t have to stop there. Author Josh Malerman wrote a follow-up novel in 2020 called Malorie, set 12 years after Malorie and her kids find refuge at a school for the blind. Things go sideways at the school, they escape, and eventually settle into another abandoned camp where they hunker down for about a decade. By then the kids are teenagers (read: stubborn), tensions with Mom are real, and survival is still the whole game.
Translation: there’s already a blueprint for Bird Box 2, and it gives Bullock a meaty arc if she wants back in. Fans would clearly love that. Netflix, your move.
Quick facts
- Director: Susanne Bier
- Cast: Sandra Bullock, Trevante Rhodes, John Malkovich
- Release dates: December 14, 2018 (limited theatrical), December 21, 2018 (Netflix worldwide)
- IMDb: 6.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 64%
- Producers: Bluegrass Films, Netflix, Chris Morgan Productions, Dylan Clark Productions
- Where to watch (US): Streaming on Netflix
Would you want Bullock back for a sequel, or should Malorie pass the blindfold to someone new?