Ow! Who even hangs pots and pans from the ceiling? That is so dumb. Just need to cut my sandwich in half- *slicing noise* Uhhh! That's going to leave a mark... Now where are those STAIRS- Ow! *grunts in pain* *Makes sounds akin to a monkey as you can hear several things break* Ughh- Found 'em... Forget this stupid monster, the most dangerous thing in "Bird Box" is the second story... Hello internet, welcome to Film Theory! Forcefully opening your eyes to the mind-scarring truths hidden in all your favorite movies. So Netflix has really is really hitting out of the park recently, isn't it? Between the 'Choose your own adventure' movie "Bandersnatch", and the totally-not-"A Quiet Place"-rip-off "Bird Box", there's been a lot of binge-able theory fodder coming out of the ol' *Netflix Sound DUN DUNH* And while "Bandersnatch" might seem like the one that's more up my alley, considering the video game theme and all that, it's actually "Bird Box" that I wanna tackle first, mostly because the movie had one question that I think we all want answered: what the heck was the monster? To catch you up, "Bird Box" follows a group of people trying to survive a world wide catastrophe in which people are driven to kill themselves after they witness some 'thing.' In order to survive, you have to keep your eyes shut, or else wear a blindfold, leading to this iconic imagery from the movie, and all these other really dumb "Bird Box" challenge videos on YouTube... It's a really cool concept. Just like noise was the dangerous element from "A Quiet Place", sight is the thing that gets you killed in "Bird Box". But the frustrating thing about the movie is that you never actually get to see the monster. It's never made explicitly clear what exactly is driving everyone to this point of madness. So that is my goal today, to use all the clues that we see (and don't see) throughout the movie to rip off the blindfold and expose the "Bird Box"
monster once and for all. Let's look at what we know. From the opening moments it's made clear that when most people see whatever it is that they're seeing,
they lose control and, within a few seconds, look for the nearest garbage
truck to stand in front of, burning car to hop into, or pane of glass to leap
through. But this effect isn't just limited to in-person appearances. Greg,
in the highest stakes game of FNAF ever, watches security cameras, sees the thing,
and immediately knocks his own block off. It's important to note though that this isn't true for everyone. About midway through the movie,
we learned from Gary that there are some people who've seen it and don't
immediately off themselves. "These psychos from Northwood..." "It's a mental institution for the criminally insane." "They took us outside and they forced our
eyes open so that we would have to look at the creatures." It seems like all these
people are either criminals or were already insane prior to looking at the
thing. And rather than dying, they're instead left to worship it, serving as
prophets trying to trick or force everyone around them to open their eyes
and behold this thing of beauty. So, beauty must be in the eyes of the
beholder since these are the images that Gary draws of the thing after he's seen
it. The other reactions we get from people who see the thing include: and It's not outright terror it's just more confusion. And lastly, we can deduce that whatever it is does have a physical form, considering that we actively see it
casting shadows and setting off a car's proximity sensors in an early scene, but
it also has limited ability to actually interact with the world, considering it
can't open doors or pull off blindfolds itself, instead relying on its devotees
to do the work for it. So that's a lot of information, but where's that leave us?
Well, the movie gives us a list of possible explanations to test in the
form of Charlie. "You got world religion, mythology, it's full of mentions of
demons, or spirit creatures, that takes on the form of your worst fears or deepest
sadness or your greatest loss." Except we know that that isn't true of the "Bird
Box" creature, considering the early responses of and Those responses don't scream "oh, this is
my greatest fear!" or "oh, this is the worst loss I've ever experienced!" More just
like "oh, this is it huh?" So that one might not have worked out, but don't worry, Charlie has a lot more hypotheses that we can put to the test. - mythology. All different names, but the
same thing: the end of us. Man Charlie, I know it's the end of the world, and I
know this is all for your book but you're even more melodramatic than I am.
Many of the entities you just mentioned don't mean the end of us, plus you've
lumped together a lot of spiritual things that are very different and all
very wrong for the situation that you're currently in, so let's quickly knock 'em
off the list one by one. Aka Manah comes from the Zoroastrian faith, one of the
oldest religions that are still in practice today, with its origins in the
Middle East, and according to the "Encyclopedia of Demons in World
Religions and Cultures", he's the personification of sensual desire and
lust. He corrupts your morals and is said to cause people to sit back and watch as
evil prevails. So if everyone in "Bird Box" were busy getting their "woohoo" on in the
streets, then maybe he'd be the one at work here, but clearly that's not the
case, and therefore he is clearly not our demon. Surgat is another one that he
mentions that is also really easy to eliminate. Coming out of the Christian
occult, he's known as 'the one who opens all locks', which directly speaks to his
demonic power: the ability to open any lock in the world. This makes him a
fantastic Mr. Beast to get possessed by if you're clumsy with your keys, but
definitely not the culprit of a movie where the entity that's killing everyone
is befuddled by a simple door handle. Moving on, the Puca is an Irish
mythological creature that shape shifts into different animals and plays pranks
on humans, like turning into a black horse and taking people for a spooky
scary ride, but beyond that it doesn't appear to be all that violent. Seeing it
certainly doesn't cause immediate death, and there are plenty of stories where
the Puca actually gives good luck. Another easy elimination, which leaves us
with the Chinese Huli-Jing, and honestly this one seemed like a good fit...
at first. The Huli-Jing are nine-tailed Chinese fox spirits with the ability to
shape shift, often taking the form of a person's dead
relatives. They're able to make people believe the opposite of what's true, like
a spirit who convinces you to take off your blindfold and see them because
they're beautiful and they're immortal, but that immortality requires them to
consume human souls. A lot of things could really work here in the case of
"Bird Box." It seems like you can make a solid case for 'em being our mystery entity,
except here's the rub: they can pass through walls. Well, send
another possibility through the shredder. So Charlie in the movie took a lot of shots
and missed 'em all. Maybe he should abandon that writing project of his and
instead go back to his former job. Seems like he had a lot more success there. So now, it's my turn, and honestly, after looking at all the various behaviors of
the "Bird Box" creature, no one explanation can truly encapsulate it all. That said, I
do think that we can pinpoint the two lores that have combined to create the
apocalypse that we see in "Bird Box." For the first, let's look again at Gary's
pictures. At first glance, these just seem to be a bunch of random spooky pictures,
but upon closer inspection you can definitely see some key themes emerging.
First, the idea of exploding eyeballs, which is his artistic representation of
the process of the pupil fracturing every time someone sees these entities.
So with those pictures eliminated, as well as the ones of just generally scary
or screaming faces, this is what we're left with: a bunch of pictures of
monsters. Let's call them 'Horny', 'Tentacle Face', and 'Elephant Nose.' Let's focus on
Tentacle Face here first. It looks a lot like Davy Jones from the "Pirates of the
Caribbean", or it looks a lot like a creature that one would describe like
this. Quote: If you're familiar with your horror history, you'll know that Tentacle Face belongs
to none other than the Lovecraftian nightmare Cthulhu, a name that I'm sure
we're all vaguely familiar with but might not know a whole lot about, so
let's take a minute to talk about him. Cthulhu, created by author H. P. Lovecraft in his short story 'The Call of Cthulhu', is what's known as a Great Old
One, a god-like entity that came from space and now sleeps under the oceans of Earth, waiting to be awakened. But not only does fish face fit what we see in
Gary's little art project, listen to how the creator of "Bird Box" describes his
monster. "There's a teacher who mentioned that a man would go mad, lose his mind, if
he were to attempt to fathom infinity... ...became like a monstrous concept to me,
all right. So, so at some point I started to think of infinity or something the
human mind can't assimilate as a monster, and what if that idea was actually, like,
personified? So, on your front porch infinity is on the porch swing outside
swinging. Infinity is out there, and if you opened the door..." Mind you, this
interview is from way back in 2015, from the earliest days when his book started
to get attention, and long before the author realized that he needed to be a
bit more mysterious in the way that he talks about his story. So the monster, as
he saw it in his original novel, was inspired by infinity. That's interesting,
considering that the main theme of the Cthulhu mythos is human insignificance
when confronted with the idea of infinity. Look no further than the
opening lines of 'Call of Cthulhu', which outlines this exact premise. Quote: End quote. Now, if that still doesn't sound like it matches "Bird Box", just wait.
You see, in Lovecraftian stories, when humans come into contact with one of
these infinite beings, like Cthulhu, they go mad. Their brains aren't able to
comprehend the magnitude of what they're seeing, and they literally go insane, but
it also doesn't apply to all humans. A subset of people become worshipers of
the Old Ones just like we see in "Bird Box". To quote from 'Call of Cthulhu': And that's just Cthulhu. Lovecraft has a whole series of monsters
in his bestiary that matched the other drawings that we're seeing. Elephant Face? That's a lot like the design of Chaugner Faugn. Horny? Definitely close to the
gods servants named Nightgaunts. So we have creatures based on the concept of
infinity that have massive size, match Gary's drawings, inspire cults of
devoted worshipers, and possess faces that literally drive people insane. Monsters of the Cthulhu mythos match practically all of our requirements.
Practically. You see, the Cthulhu explanation misses a few major marks.
First, humans are to Cthulhu what insects are to us: nothing. We can't be bothered.
He's too busy living his best life under the sea alongside Aquaman and Ariel. That
would explain why it shows no interest or urgency in opening doors in "Bird Box",
but Cthulhu also wouldn't be found chasing around a few humans on a 42 hour boat tour. It's just a waste of his, and quite frankly, most of the other
Lovecraftian monsters', time. The bigger issue here though is the "Bird Box"
creature's ability to harness the power of the dead. Up until this point, I've been dancing around one key issue here: the fact that the entity can mimic the
appearance and voice of family members. And not just people it was responsible
for killing either. In the opening moments of the movie, we meet, and quickly lose, a woman named Lydia. As she sees the monster, she calls out: The twist is that Lydia's mom has been
dead for five years, long before this thing started attacking Earth. The movie
doesn't bother to explore this, but to me this is a huge detail that's critical
for understanding the lore behind this thing. It's also critical to know that
it's not restrained to mimicking just the dead. In an effort to trick boy and
girl into removing their blindfolds, the entity mimics the voice of Mallory, our protagonist, who is still very much alive. So what's happening here? But
before I tell you the other half of this theory, do me a favor and remove those blindfolds for just long enough to hit that subscribe button. We have a lot of
other cool horror movie theories headed down the pipeline, so if you've enjoyed
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Thank you so much. And now, with that out of the way, let's finish this mystery up.
While a Cthulhu-like monster seems to be the physical being that people are
seeing here, where are these additional powers and motivations coming from? Well, there's strong evidence to suggest that these elements are inspired by The
Rapture, the event in some Christian belief where the faithful, both living
and dead, are taken up to meet Christ. To use the original Bible verses, 1st Thessalonians chapter 4, verses 16 and 17, quote: Consider this: what if Lydia, calling out
to her mom, is actually seeing her dead mother in the afterlife? And if Tom
really is calling out to Mallory at the end of the movie, encouraging her to open
her eyes and join him in the afterlife? All of these souls seem to be caught up
together, just like in The Rapture, where they would be encouraging others below them to join. If that was truly the case, and you have all these worthy dead
people mixed up together like a big ol' yarn ball, it would be a beautiful sight,
just like those left behind say that it is despite their drawings suggesting
otherwise. Speaking of those left behind, why are only criminals left behind on
Earth? Well, because they didn't honor God's commandments and don't merit going up to heaven. They're not rapture material, you could say. And not only does
it explain that, but this theory also gives clarity to a detail that's easy to
overlook: why these delusional prophets insist on opening the eyes of their
victims instead of, you know, just killing 'em. I mean, if the monster truly wanted
these people to just kill off the rest of humanity, why wouldn't they just do it?
Why resort to forcing their eyes open? It's so the victims can bear witness. In
the Christian faith, a lot of emphasis is put on bearing witness to God's power.
Isaiah 43, verse 10: Even Gary seems remorseful that he kills off Douglas without him getting to SEE
the entity. "Sorry that you didn't get to see. It is beautiful. So beautiful..." How about the whole 'not opening doors' thing? Revelation 3:20: and I hear you, I totally
recognize the concern too - what about everyone taking their own lives? If this
is a Rapture situation, isn't that a cardinal sin of the church? Yeah, yeah it
is. Absolutely. However, this is possibly a Rapture-like situation we're talking
about. Maybe Rapture rules are in effect. I mean, think about it.
Typical depictions of the event are a bunch of bodies just kind of rising up
to the heavens, but that doesn't really make a whole lot of sense, does it? Maybe
the real rapture is just those who are chosen answering the call to free their
spirits by abandoning the flesh, and doing stuff like garbage truck hopping
is the fastest way to do it. You may have also noticed the odd motif of pregnancy.
You see it with Mallory. You see it with Olympia. Is it a coincidence then, that when referring to the day of Rapture, the
Bible specifically refers to it coming on like labor pains to a pregnant woman?
1st Thessalonians, chapter 1: It's a weird coincidence, right? Now obviously, there's an elephant in the room: why would the blind be left
behind during a rapture scenario? And yeah, the meek shall inherit the earth. I dunno, not a perfect theory. Like I said earlier, I don't think it's any one monster or
one religious belief happening here. A rapturing Cthulhu - a literal octopus
Jesus - is really the closest we can probably get. There's just a lot of weird
specifications that this thing needs to fill, and in the end it's really more
like an original creation for the purposes of the story, which, gotta
say, is never a bad thing. What? People coming up with an original
thought for a change? Go figure. And heck, at the very least my explanation of an
octopus Jesus today is way better than what they were gonna put in the movie.
Yeah, that veiny reptile baby was an early version of the monster that got
cut. I got to admit, for as frustrating as not seeing the monster was, not seeing
the monster was a whole heck of a lot better than that. But hey, that's just a
theory. A Film Theory! Aaaand if you want to see more horrific Film Theory action,
click the box on the right to see how to beat Michael Myers. Or, if you want to see
something that's a bit closer to home, check out our series on Salad Fingers.
It's the creepiest animated thing that you're gonna see today. Now if you'll
excuse me, I have a few more endings that I gotta get in "Bandersnatch". I'll see
you next week.
I would have thought "mind reader" before I thought "rapture event". After all, Mallorie's voice is being replicated, and she's not dead, so the voices being heard probably aren't the actual dead people speaking. It's the creatures mimicking their voices.
So the creatures are like boggarts from Harry Potter, mind-readers that can change how their victims perceive them, but pumped up to levels of infinity.
...Which is pretty much the exact description of IT from the book, IT, now that I think about it.
But where as IT made itself finite when it entered Earth's universe (and drove people insane by dragging them into the Macroverse where they would perceive IT's infinite form), these creatures remained infinite upon entering Earth's universe.
It's Junkyo from Danganronpa. Suicide caused by brainwashing induced by sight. Need I say more?
Theory: Birdbox was the Great Despair
I wonder if MatPat is a fan of SCP? I just thought this is something original that'd be very good for a cognitohazard SCP entry.
If you continue to go off the Jesus Christ theory, there does seem to be some evidence that could work. Most of this is from the book of Revelation
Revelation 1:1 says, "This is a revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants the events that must soon take place..."
There is also the Horsemen of the Apocalypse in Revelation chapter 6, they could also be contributing.
Probably the best bet that I found, was Revelation 13 when beasts of the devil arise from the seas
Rather underwhelming thats what it is, not sure if its mentioned in the theory but there was an image relased by the creators of bird box that shown what the monster looked like as it was planned to be in the film at some point or another, but the result wasnt as epic as it was made to feel, at least in my opinion
it is the Eldrazi
Hey Matpat,
So I posted this seperately because I got ahead of myself and didn'y read the thread rules. but anyway,
I just watched your Birdbox monster vid, and if your H.P. lovecraft theory is correct, there IS one Being in the mythos that ticks all the boxes, and that is Nyarlethotep, the Black Pharoah, the Creeping Chaos. he is a being of immesurable power, able to present himself as anyone, and with the ability to mimic them perfectly. and unlike the other beings like Cthulu or Shub-Niggurath, he is interested and invested directly into the lives of humans specifically with the goal of dominating them and wasting them through fear and chaos. important to note is with his ability to assume multiple forms he could quite possibly be all those monsters in one.
I offer as evidence quotes from the lovecraft wiki:
" Nyarlathotep, however, is active and frequently walks the Earth in the guise of a human being, usually a tall, slim, joyous man. He has "a thousand" other forms and manifestations, most reputed to be quite horrific and sanity-blasting. "
Nyarlathotep seems to be deliberately deceptive and manipulative, and even uses propaganda to achieve his goals. In this regard, he is probably the most human-like among the Outer Gods.
Nyarlathotep enacts the will of the Outer Gods, and is their "messenger, heart and soul", "the immemorial figure of the deputy or messenger of hidden and terrible powers"
Unlike the other Outer Gods, spreading madness is more important and enjoyable than death and destruction to Nyarlathotep. It is suggested by some that he will destroy the human race and possibly the earth as well.
also, quick thought. if the hp lovcraft angle is wrong. the pictures could be multiple interpretations of perceiving infinity.