Bird Box team reveal what monsters would have really looked like
While filming the scene with the creature, Sandra Bullock could not contain her laughter
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Your support makes all the difference.Bird Box may not have won over critics, but Netflix subscribers have been watching the horror in their millions.
Although the streaming blockbuster centres on seemingly shapeless aliens who drive people to commit suicide once looked upon, the visual effects team behind the film designed a creepy creature to appear in the film.
Howard Berger – Bird Box’s special effects makeup creator – shared an image of the creature on Instagram (now deleted, but reuploaded by other users), offering a behind-the-scenes look at the unused prosthetics.
‘’It’s always a bit disappointing when so much effort goes into something that ends up in the cutting room floor,” Berger wrote alongside the images, “but I get it and it’s always what is best for the final product.”
Screenwriter Eric Heisserer, who previously adapted Arrival for the big screen, has spoken about the deleted scene which would have included the monsters full form. He told Bloody Disgusting: “There was a time when one of the producers was like, ‘No, you have to see something at some point’ and forced me to write essentially a nightmare sequence where Malorie experiences one in that house.”
Sandra Bullock, who plays Malorie, also spoke about filming the scene with the prosthetics, which were mounted onto a green body: “It was snake-like, and I was like, ‘I don’t want to see it when it first happens. Just bring it into the room. We’ll shoot the scene.’ I turn and he’s like this [growling at me.] It’s making me laugh. It was just a long fat baby.”
Director Susanne Bier added: “It so easily becomes funny. We actually shot that and spent a lot of energy on, but every time I saw it, I was like this is not going to be tense. It’s just going to be funny. At first, Sandy was like, ‘I don’t want to see it’ because she thought it was scary. Then it was like, ‘Don’t show it to me because [I’ll laugh].’ Every time I did it, I was like, ‘Shit, that’s a different film.’”
Bird Box was watched by over 45 million people during its first seven days on Netflix. Read The Independent‘s interview with Bullock here.
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