‘Bird Box Barcelona’ (2023): Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

Directed by: Álex Pastor, David Pastor || Produced by: Dylan Clark, Nuria Valls, Adrián Guerra, Chris Morgan, Ryan Lewis, Josh Malerman

Screenplay by: Álex Pastor, David Pastor || Starring: Mario Casas, Naila Schuberth, Georgina Campbell, Diego Calva, Leonardo Sbaraglia

Music by: Zeltia Montes || Cinematography: Daniel Aranyó || Edited by: Martí Roca || Country: Spain || Language: Spanish, English, German

Running Time: 112 minutes

One of the first viral cinematic “memes” I followed after at last joining Netflix’s legions of subscribers in fall 2018 was Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier’s adaptation of the post-apocalyptic novel, Bird Box (2014), by Josh Malerman. Seen at the time as the visual sensory gimmick equivalent to John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place (2018, 2021; Bird Box dealt with quasi-incorporeal monsters that killed you if you looked upon them, whereas A Quiet Place’s creature antagonists pounced upon characters who made any notable sounds), the film became one of Netflix’s most watched Original Films in the history of the platform, buoyed by somewhat amusing, sometimes terrifying social media challenges marked by the hashtag #BirdBoxChallenge, which encouraged people to perform routine, everyday tasks while blindfolded.

Top: Establishing shots of the early days of the Barcelona breakout are appreciated. Bottom: Blindfolded canines lead blindfolded humans in a search for long-term shelter.

As entertaining as the movie sometimes was, I could never get over the goofy, unintentional humor of characters becoming possessed once they “saw” the mysterious invisible creatures that haunted them. Castmembers would then walk in front of oncoming traffic, throw themselves out windows, or blow their brains out in increasingly gory and silly ways; it was hysterical at times, so I could only take the film as seriously as often as those incidents didn’t occur. Combine all the aforementioned with another typical overacted lead performance from Hollywood regular Sandra Bullock, as well as a questionable narrative structure that revealed the outcome of the first two acts with an in media res opening sequence, and Bird Box became the quintessential 1990s-esque straight-to-video title — just with much greater production values and modern filmmaking tech — that has come to define most Netflix Original Films.

Fast-forward five years and one actual pandemic later and we have the surprising, almost understated Spanish-language spinoff feature, Bird Box Barcelona, written and directed by the sibling duo of Álex and David Pastor, the creators of such pandemic-related films themselves like the pre-Star Trek (2009) Chris Pine vehicle, Carriers (2009), and Los Últimos Días (2013; “The Last Days,” also set in Barcelona and starring various disheveled, bearded leading men). To say this Bird Box sequel (henceforth, BBB) rhymes with both its directors’ prior works and the post-COVID-19 era would be an understatement, yet its online release generated little fanfare in comparison with the loud viral nonsense of its predecessor. The greatest surprise of BBB, however, is how much better it is than the original.

While I’ll never accept the dark comedy of side, background, or supporting characters offing themselves via cartoonish means at face-value, the subtle yet creative changes the Pastors make to their narrative approach toward the same source-material gives that material new life. BBB doesn’t elevate its goofy premise to high art, of course, but rather conveys that same diegesis in a more relatable, convincing, and emotional way.

Some of those changes are more superficial, such as the switch in location from nondescript north California suburbs to the desolate urban backdrop of Barcelona, while others (spoilers), like having our main character function for the majority of this sequel as an unapologetic villain, change the entire tone of the premise. The sheer balls of the Brothers Pastor to make their protagonist, Mario Casas, a “seer (a crazy person who becomes a lucid follower of the incorporeal antagonists instead of suicidal, targeting blindfolded survivors for their supernatural masters without needing to limit their own eyesight) earns my respect, even if that dynamic relies on some cliches itself (e.g. Casas’ pathological, schizophrenic insanity is personified by his deceased daughter, Alejandra Howard, acting like a devil on his shoulder). Casas operates as a sort of villainous mole infiltrating various survivor groups to sabotage their shelters and expose them to his monstrous overlords, which focuses the camera on this tragic horror instead of the unintentional comedy of repeated major character suicide.

This setup also lends itself to an impressive if formulaic arc for Casas’ lead and dynamic chemistry with female costar Georgina Campbell (remember Barbarian [2022]?). Though somewhat predictable, the transformation of Casas feels genuine and boasts dramatic heft, particularly given his relationships with his supporting cast and the memorable narrative revelations of the third act’s epilogue. Combine all that with some memorable point-of-view shots from the monsters’ perspective to give them some sort of tangible physical presence, as well as a series of informative flashbacks that make way better sense than screenwriter Eric Heisserer’s story format for the first film, and BBB becomes everything the original Bird Box should’ve been.

Michelle Jenner dresses Mario Casas’ wounds in the effective opening scenes of Bird Box Barcelona.

Put another way, the only recent standalone sequel that supersedes its predecessor like Barcelona does to the 2018 Bird Box is James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad (2021) compared to the 2016 Suicide Squad, the latter of which was ripped from David Ayer’s creative control in a now classic modern example of Hollywood studio interference in tentpole filmmaking. Alex and David Pastor’s Iberian spinoff owes its name recognition and much of its worldbuilding to the viral sensation that was the first film, sure, but the oddball apocalyptic concept just works so much better here.

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SUMMARY & RECOMMENDATION: Patient and creative where the original film was a haphazard tonal mess, Bird Box Barcelona succeeds at constructing a believable, depressing end of the world haunted by invisible creatures whose presence somehow forces people to kill themselves. I felt weird just typing that sentence, but Mario Casas in the lead role makes that weirdness work.

— However... I still think the original concept of invisible monsters whose presence somehow forces people to kill themselves works better on the page than it does on screen.

—> Bird Box Barcelona, shockingly to me, comes RECOMMENDED.

? What these survivors need is one of Donnie Yen’s blind swordsman personas to show up.