We’ve got a Bird Box sequel coming, for more psychological terror. The original Bird Box was a sensation, becoming one of the best horror movies of 2020, and thanks to some of the crew, we can a part of the film that was kept hidden.
If you haven’t seen it, Bird Box involves people dying by suicide because of some mysterious creatures that start appearing. Never described in great detail, survivors get around these entities by being blind, or simulating blindness, hence Sandra Bullock wearing a blindfold for the monster movie.
Turns out, the monsters that were designed had a scene in the film that was cut. Andy Bergholtz, the special effects makeup lead on the thriller movie, revealed the idea in a now-deleted Instagram post, and it’s not what you expect.
Turns out Bird Box’s antagonists are weird, humanoid things that look like overgrown babies? The body was going to be CGI, but there are clear sculpts of the head.
“It’s always a bit disappointing when so much effort goes into something that ends up in the cutting room floor, but I get it and it’s always what is best for the final product,” Howard Berger, co-owner of KNB EFX Group, the studio that produced the sculpt, said at the time.
We don’t know why the above post was deleted, but we’d guess that the negative reaction underneath it might have played a part. Sadly, some fans weren’t happy about what the artists had done, and didn’t quite get why the creature looked that way.
Ultimately, the artists were just following a brief, and their work is excellent, even if it does raise questions about necessity. In Josh Maleman’s novel on which the Netflix movie was based, they’re never described, and maybe that’s exactly as it should’ve always been.
Check out our lists of the best vampire movies and best werewolf movies for more effects-driven terrors.