Bird Box: what is the Netflix horror about and why is everyone talking about it?

Bird Box stars award-winning actress Sandra Bullock (Photo: Netflix)

What is Bird Box about?

Bird Box is an American thriller based on the 2014 novel of the same name by Josh Malerman. The reason everyone is talking about it now is because Netflix streamed it worldwide on 21 December.

Bird Box follows a woman (Sandra Bullock) who, along with a pair of children, (dubbed Boy and Girl), must make it through a forest and river blindfolded (Photo: Netflix)[/caption]

The film has a star-studded lineup consisting of Sandra Bullock as Malorie Hayes, Trevante Rhodes as Tom, John Malkovich as Douglas, Sarah Paulson as Jessica Hayes and Danielle Macdonald as Olympia.

So why is everyone talking about it on Twitter?

You'd think possibly the reason the film is getting a lot of attention online is that of its casting. Bullock is an award-winning actress who starred in numerous films such as A Time to Kill, Miss Congeniality and The Blind Side and Rhodes is well known for starring an Academy Award-winning film Moonlight but actually, it's pretty much down to the memes.

The hashtag #BirdBox has been trending for several days now. People are sharing memes in regards to the movie, and as more people share on social media, the more people find they're curious and actually tuning into the film.

"Let me watch bird box real quick so I can relate to all these memes," one said on Twitter.

Lots of amusing tweets about the film circulated online. The main premise of the film is that an apocalypse is occurring and in order to stay alive, you must keep your blindfold on or keep your eyes closed.

Malorie, informs two young, unnamed children, a boy and a girl, that they will be going on a dangerous journey down a river in a boat to freedom. She strictly commands them to not remove their blindfolds—or else they will die.

Speaking to i News, writer Chante Joseph said she only watched the film as she saw people tweeting about it.

"Though the film was absolutely petrifying but couldn’t keep my eyes off it," she said of the horror.

"It didn’t help that the whole of Twitter was watching the film so if I didn’t watch it ASAP I would’ve been left behind and inundated with spoilers."

Like many of the viewers of Bird Box, Joseph shared memes in relation to the film. She said: "They absolutely cracked me up and also told the story in a way that was over exaggerated and less scary."

The 22-year-old said: "I love the memes and I love that it's classic videos we see online but repurposed in a way that fits this movie.

Twitter is what made Bird Box

"I don’t think the film would’ve been as much of a hit without the after effect of Twitter," she added.

And many people agree with her remark, a viewer said on social media: "Twitter is what made bird box so remarkable cus these memes killing me."

Another commented: "Twitter singlehandedly made Bird box a success. Honestly, the tweets and reactions are better than the actual movie."

A version of this article originally appeared on i News