Bandersnatch and Bird Box Review

Rachel Reynolds

“Bandersnatch” and Bird Box, released around the same time, are both suspenseful Netflix Originals. Their popularity grew rapidly and before long every other post on any social media platform was a meme related to either movie. After growing tired of not fully understanding the memes, I watched both, and I honestly don’t get the hype. Don’t get me wrong, both were great movies. But considering the publicity, I feel like there should have been more to them.

I’m not one for scary movies. I’ve always hated the tension and suspension. Because of this, I was nervous to try either. But I knew I should or else I’d be missing out. As it turns out, I wasn’t missing much; the memes are pretty self explanatory.

I watched Bird Box first. I was ready to jump out of my skin and hide under the covers but when I got there, I was really quite bored and confused. The most exciting part was when the entire town turned into a TWD episode. I felt absolutely no connection with any of the characters, there was no real build up, and I had no clue what had to do with what. I was disappointed. My only substantive reaction was concern for the safety of the children. But there was no real disturbingly scary plot to the movie.

I watched “Bandersnatch” after weeks of endless recommendations. Although it’s a part of Black Mirror, a Netflix Original, “Bandersnatch” stands on its own. At first, I liked how interactive it was. Then it started to confuse me and leave me on edge each time a choice was to be made: “Do I kill him because it’s supposed to be scary or do I save him because it’s the right thing to do?” I just wanted to know what the real story was! It was hard to follow and I slowly grew impatient. I just wanted to enjoy the movie, rather than run it.

I had the pleasure of watching them with friends and enjoyed both movies. I’ve heard several positive reactions to each movie but I, however, seemed to miss all the excitement. Nonetheless, I would still recommend watching the movies, as both are such a big part of our technological lives.