Some Lovecraftian monsters come out of nowhere and start causing a ruckus all over the world. People who aren't insane commit suicide upon seeing them but crazy people get an obsession with getting others to look at them.

It's one of a slew of movies where some disaster causes people to work on limited abilities, which probably started (or was at least resucitated by, if prior movies existed) with A Quiet Place (2018). Here the people can't use their eyesight unless they're in an indoor space with no view to the outside.

It's effectively interesting in that sense, but it's ultimately also a cheap disaster movie. The gaping plot holes are apparent, people do very irrational things - they have guns but don't shoot people who they know are out to kill them?; they're trying to get to a sanctuary in the middle of the woods for what? It's not like they'll have more chances of survival in an enclosed space without going out even if there are a thousand people there. Also the monsters gain telepathic powers near the end of the movie for no reason. Lol.

But if you're not too fussy it's an effective parable about the disconnectedness of modern life with invisible demonic monsters. Sandra Bullock plays a misanthropic or socially anxious artist who hates to go outside. She's forced to interact with a bunch of people and regains her capacity to connect with others.

I like that they didn't show the monsters but only hinted at them in rumblings, growlings, and shadows. I thank the powers that be for not showing me another lame CGI lizard hissing at the camera, hyperventilating with corresponding chest movement, and drooling menacingly. Seems CGI artists can only create 3 movements in their "scary monsters."

One point worthy of discussion which no one has covered is that Hollywood is still playing its vulgar superficial value game. I predicted exactly who's going to die and in what order (EXACTLY!). The uglier, older, and less white you are, the more expendable you are to Hollywood and so you die first. Younger, white, and more attractive people die last or don't die. Subtle.

I bet they see nothing wrong with their racist/ageist/superficial hierarchical worldview, either. They haven't learned much in 60 years (Civil Rights' Movement). Sad.

Honourable Mentions: Ghost (1990). A bunch of sinister shadows come to take the souls of the bad guys to the depths of hell near the end of the movie. In Bird Box the antagonists are also portrayed as some nondescript shadows. Great supernatural romance film - Whoopi Goldberg's finest hour!