If you were captivated by the suspenseful, post-apocalyptic world of Bird Box, you’re probably craving more movies that deliver similar thrills and chills. The 2018 Netflix hit starring Sandra Bullock follows a mother desperately trying to protect her children from mysterious entities that drive anyone who looks at them to violent suicide. Forced to navigate a treacherous journey blindfolded, it’s an intense, edge-of-your-seat thriller from start to finish.
Bird Box taps into primal fears – losing sight, facing the unknown, societal collapse, and threats to our loved ones. It’s a layered horror/thriller that keeps you guessing and imagining the terror of an unseen evil presence. The film’s success lies in never fully revealing the monsters, allowing your mind to conjure something more terrifying than any CGI creation.
If you’re looking for more movies like Bird Box that prey on deep-seated fears, showcase the dangers of a crumbling world, or keep the true terror just out of frame, this list has you covered. Get ready for pulse-pounding excitement with these 18 films that share DNA with Bird Box‘s suspenseful survivalist themes and apocalyptic tension.
1. A Quiet Place (2018)
Directed by: John Krasinski
Starring: Emily Blunt, John Krasinski, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe
A Quiet Place is probably the first movie that comes to mind for most Bird Box fans, and for good reason. Released the same year, it has an extremely similar premise. The movie focuses on the Abbott family – father Lee (Krasinski), mother Evelyn (Blunt), deaf daughter Regan (Simmonds), and sons Marcus (Jupe) and Beau – as they silently scavenge for supplies and struggle to survive in a world where the slightest noise could mean instant death. With Evelyn pregnant and the kids still learning the high stakes rules, the tension is unrelenting.
Like Bird Box, it’s a masterful exercise in building dread through the absence of sound and dialogue rather than jump scares. We acutely feel the characters’ fear of making a sound, and every creak or unexpected noise jolts us. The film also has a strong emotional core in its depiction of parents fighting to protect their children at all costs.
Where to watch: Paramount+, Epix, or rent on Amazon, Apple TV
2. 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)
Directed by: Dan Trachtenberg
Starring: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Goodman, John Gallagher Jr.
10 Cloverfield Lane is a taut, claustrophobic thriller that keeps you guessing until the very end. Michelle (Winstead) wakes up in an underground bunker after a car accident, told by the intense Howard (Goodman) that a chemical attack has left the outside world uninhabitable. He says he saved her life by bringing her there.
At first, Michelle is suspicious and desperate to escape. But as she gets to know Howard and fellow bunker occupant Emmett (Gallagher), she starts to wonder if something catastrophic really did happen above ground. Is Howard her savior or captor? What dangers really lurk outside? The movie keeps you on a knife edge as it slowly reveals the truth.
Like Bird Box, it’s a film where no one and nowhere feels safe. It mines fear from paranoia, tight spaces, and the terror of the unknown. Goodman is unforgettable as the unpredictable Howard, and Winstead brings both vulnerability and strength to her character as she fights to survive. The less you know going in, the better.
Where to watch: Rent on Amazon, Apple TV, YouTube
3. It Comes At Night (2017)
Directed by: Trey Edward Shults
Starring: Joel Edgerton, Christopher Abbott, Carmen Ejogo, Riley Keough, Kelvin Harrison Jr.
In this bleak post-apocalyptic tale, the world has been ravaged by a highly contagious disease. Paul (Edgerton), his wife Sarah (Ejogo) and their teenage son Travis (Harrison) live in a boarded-up house deep in the woods, with strict protocols to avoid infection. Their tense existence is disrupted when a desperate young family seeks refuge with them.
Paranoia and mistrust brew between the two families, even as they try to work together to survive. The true horror of the movie comes from the way fear makes the characters turn on each other, giving in to worst-case scenario thinking. It’s a slow burn that builds to a devastating conclusion.
Like Bird Box, it taps into the primal fear of an invisible, fatal threat that can strike at any moment. It also explores how crisis can bring out the best and worst in people. The movie is light on plot but heavy on dread-soaked atmosphere. It’s ultimately a haunting meditation on human nature and the cost of survival.
Where to watch: Netflix, rent on Amazon, Apple TV
4. The Mist (2007)
Directed by: Frank Darabont
Starring: Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden, Andre Braugher, Toby Jones
Based on the Stephen King novella, The Mist centers on a group of people trapped in a supermarket after a thick fog rolls in, concealing deadly Lovecraftian monsters. While the creatures outside are terrifying, the real threat comes from the breakdown of society inside as panic and paranoia take hold.
The diverse group of characters react in dramatically different ways to the crisis. Some try to work together, while others give in to fear and self-interest. Marcia Gay Harden is chilling as Mrs. Carmody, a religious fanatic who starts a cult based on human sacrifice to appease the monsters.
Like Bird Box, it’s a study in how quickly social order crumbles in a crisis and how much we depend on the veneer of civilization. It’s a grim, intense film that doesn’t pull any punches, with an ending that will haunt you long after the credits roll. Not for the faint of heart, but a must-see for fans of apocalyptic horror.
Where to watch: Netflix, rent on Amazon, Apple TV
5. Don’t Breathe (2016)
Directed by: Fede Álvarez
Starring: Jane Levy, Dylan Minnette, Daniel Zovatto, Stephen Lang
Don’t Breathe flips the script on the typical home invasion thriller. A trio of desperate thieves break into the house of a blind Army veteran, thinking he’ll be an easy target. However, they soon find themselves trapped and hunted by the deadly homeowner with uncanny senses and skills.
While the movie doesn’t have a post-apocalyptic or supernatural angle like Bird Box, it has a similar sensory deprivation element, as the characters must navigate in silence and darkness to survive against a foe with a heightened sense of hearing. It’s a lean, mean thriller that never lets up on the tension and will keep you breathless until the end.
Where to watch: Starz, rent on Amazon, Apple TV
6. Hush (2016)
Directed by: Mike Flanagan
Starring: Kate Siegel, John Gallagher Jr.
Hush is another innovative home invasion thriller with a sensory twist. Maddie (Siegel) is a deaf and mute author living alone in the woods. One night, she finds herself terrorized by a masked killer who cuts the power and stalks her in her own home.
The movie brilliantly uses sound design to put us in Maddie’s perspective, muffling noises to mimic her deafness. We feel her isolation, vulnerability and resilience as she fights back against the sadistic intruder with her remaining senses and wits.
Like Bird Box, it’s a masterful exercise in wringing maximum tension from a simple but scary premise. It’s amazing how much Flanagan accomplishes with just two main characters and a single location. Siegel also co-wrote the taut script and gives a riveting mostly silent performance.
Where to watch: Netflix
7. The Silence (2019)
Directed by: John R. Leonetti
Starring: Kiernan Shipka, Stanley Tucci, Miranda Otto, John Corbett
The Silence didn’t get much buzz when it came out, but it’s an underrated gem for Bird Box fans. Based on the book by Tim Lebbon, it depicts a world where blind pterosaur-like creatures called Vesps are released from an ancient cave system and proceed to hunt humans by sound.
Ally (Shipka), a teenager who lost her hearing in a car accident, and her family must use sign language and stay utterly quiet to survive as society collapses around them. However, a sinister cult also rises up, believing the Vesps are a divine punishment.
The movie has strong parallels to A Quiet Place in addition to Bird Box, but it explores the premise in some interesting new directions. Shipka gives an expressive performance, and genre veterans Tucci and Otto bring gravitas as her parents. Some of the social commentary is a bit heavy-handed, but it’s a solid, suspenseful ride.
Where to watch: Netflix
8. The Road (2009)
Directed by: John Hillcoat
Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Charlize Theron, Robert Duvall, Guy Pearce
Based on Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Road follows an unnamed man (Mortensen) and his young son (Smit-McPhee) as they travel across the barren wasteland of post-apocalyptic America, pushing their belongings in a shopping cart and scavenging to survive.
It’s a bleak, harrowing film that doesn’t shy away from the brutality of a world where social order has collapsed. Starvation, sickness, and roving gangs of cannibals are constant threats. But it’s also a poignant story about the fierce love between parent and child, and the inextinguishable light of human goodness and hope even in the darkest times.
Like Bird Box, it grapples with weighty questions about what makes life worth living in a ruined world and what moral lines we’ll cross to protect our loved ones. Mortensen and Smit-McPhee give raw, moving performances as the father and son clinging to each other and their humanity against all odds.
Where to watch: Rent on Amazon, Apple TV, YouTube
9. Cargo (2017)
Directed by: Ben Howling, Yolanda Ramke
Starring: Martin Freeman, Simone Landers, Anthony Hayes, Susie Porter
In this Australian indie zombie drama, Andy (Freeman) is bitten by his infected wife and has 48 hours before he turns into a mindless flesh-eating monster himself. Strapping his infant daughter to his back, he sets out across the Outback to find someone he can entrust with her care before he loses his humanity.
Cargo is more of a quiet, character-driven take on the zombie genre, but it shares Bird Box’s themes of parental devotion and sacrifice in the face of an apocalyptic threat. Freeman brings depth and pathos to a familiar premise, and the bond between Andy and his baby girl will melt your heart even as it’s ripped out.
The movie also has a unique Aboriginal Australian perspective, with Indigenous characters and culture woven throughout in a respectful way. It’s a fresh angle on a well-worn genre that makes you think as much as it makes you feel.
Where to watch: Netflix
10. The Girl With All The Gifts (2016)
Directed by: Colm McCarthy
Starring: Sennia Nanua, Gemma Arterton, Paddy Considine, Glenn Close
Like Cargo, The Girl With All The Gifts is an unconventional zombie movie with unexpected emotional resonance. In a future where most of humanity has been wiped out by a fungal infection that turns people into ravening “hungries,” a group of hybrid children who crave flesh but retain their intelligence are being studied at a military base.
When the base falls, a girl named Melanie (Nanua) goes on the run with her beloved teacher (Arterton), a scientist (Close), and a hardened soldier (Considine). Melanie must navigate the threats of the hungries, hostile humans, and her own fungal nature as she holds the key to a potential cure.
The movie shares Bird Box’s road trip structure and examines similar themes about what makes us human and what we owe to future generations. It balances horror and heart thanks to a star-making performance by Nanua and a stellar supporting cast. The ending is bold and provocative in the best way.
Where to watch: HBO Max, rent on Amazon, Apple TV
11. Birdbox (2018)
Directed by: Susanne Bier
Starring: Sandra Bullock, Trevante Rhodes, John Malkovich, Sarah Paulson, Jacki Weaver
Of course, this list wouldn’t be complete without the movie that inspired it. Bird Box became a cultural sensation when it dropped on Netflix in 2018, sparking countless memes and a (frankly dangerous) blindfold challenge. But beneath the hype is a gripping, emotionally affecting thriller anchored by one of Sandra Bullock’s best performances.
Bullock plays Malorie, a woman navigating a world where simply opening your eyes outdoors can drive you to violent madness and suicide due to an inexplicable entity that takes the form of your deepest fears and regrets. The story unfolds in two timelines – Malorie’s harrowing journey blindfolded down a river to bring her two children to safety five years after the apocalyptic event, and flashbacks to the early days of the crisis as Malorie and a group of survivors hole up in a house together.
Bird Box works because it’s not just empty scares – it has well-developed characters you care about and heartbreaking human drama amongst the horror. The talented ensemble cast brings texture and conflict to what could have been stock disaster movie archetypes. You feel the weight of Malorie’s crushing responsibility to the children and her struggle not to lose her own humanity and hope.
Where to watch: Netflix
12. Blindness (2008)
Directed by: Fernando Meirelles
Starring: Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Alice Braga, Gael García Bernal, Danny Glover
Based on the novel by Nobel Prize-winner José Saramago, Blindness is a haunting allegory about societal breakdown. When a highly contagious epidemic of blindness strikes, the government quickly quarantines the afflicted in a derelict mental asylum under armed guard, where conditions rapidly deteriorate.
One woman (Moore) retains her sight but feigns blindness to stay with her husband (Ruffalo). She becomes the de facto leader of a makeshift family of survivors within the nightmarish asylum and then on the ravaged streets as the entire city succumbs to the “white sickness.”
Like Bird Box, Blindness grapples with how we retain our humanity in inhumane circumstances. It graphically shows how thin the veneer of civilization is and how quickly order turns to brutality without the social contracts we take for granted. It’s a challenging, often disturbing watch, but it has moments of profound insight and grace. The international cast brings nuance to difficult roles.
Where to watch: Rent on Amazon, Apple TV, YouTube
13. The Happening (2008)
Directed by: M. Night Shyamalan
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, John Leguizamo, Betty Buckley
The Happening is one of Shyamalan’s more divisive films, but it has some interesting parallels to Bird Box. A science teacher (Wahlberg), his wife (Deschanel), and a young girl must flee from an inexplicable natural crisis – in this case, a neurotoxin released by plants that is causing mass suicides across the Northeastern United States.
As with most of Shyamalan’s work, the movie is more of a moody, unsettling psychological thriller than a non-stop gore fest. It taps into paranoia and the fear of an invisible, airborne threat. The performances and dialogue can be a bit stilted and uneven at times, but there are some genuinely eerie, unforgettable images and a thought-provoking ecological message.
If you’re a Shyamalan fan or just enjoy his signature brand of creeping dread and WTF twists, The Happening is worth a watch. It may not be the director’s best, but it fits solidly in the “malevolent nature” subgenre alongside Bird Box.
Where to watch: Rent on Amazon, Apple TV, YouTube
14. The Crazies (2010)
Directed by: Breck Eisner
Starring: Timothy Olyphant, Radha Mitchell, Joe Anderson
A remake of George A. Romero’s 1973 film, The Crazies is a fast-paced, suspenseful thriller about a small Iowa town plagued by insanity and violence after a mysterious toxin contaminates their water supply. The sheriff (Olyphant), his pregnant wife (Mitchell), and his deputy (Anderson) try to lead survivors to safety while avoiding both the homicidal “crazies” and the trigger-happy military containment forces.
Like Bird Box, the movie plays on the terror of not knowing who you can trust when friends and neighbors suddenly turn into murderous threats without warning. It’s a well-crafted update of Romero’s original vision, with taut pacing, solid performances, and some memorable set pieces. It may not break a lot of new ground, but it’s an entertaining ride for fans of outbreak horror.
Where to watch: Rent on Amazon, Apple TV, YouTube
15. Perfect Sense (2011)
Directed by: David Mackenzie
Starring: Eva Green, Ewan McGregor, Connie Nielsen, Ewen Bremner
Perfect Sense is a unique and underrated gem that blends romance, sci-fi, and horror. An epidemiologist (Green) and a chef (McGregor) fall in love against the backdrop of a strange global pandemic that causes people to progressively lose their senses – smell, taste, hearing, and finally sight. Each stage is preceded by an overwhelming wave of emotion, such as grief or rage.
The movie is more of a poetic, melancholy meditation on the human condition than a pulse-pounding thriller. But like Bird Box, it imagines society crumbling as people are robbed of the senses they take for granted. It shows how the crisis brings out both the best and worst in people, and how sensory memories and connections define our lives. Green and McGregor have a smoldering chemistry that grounds the story in tangible emotion.
While Perfect Sense got mixed reviews, I find it a moving and thought-provoking film that has only become more resonant in our age of COVID-19. It’s a different flavor of apocalyptic drama than Bird Box, but it’s a beautiful and haunting companion piece.
Where to watch: Rent on Amazon, Apple TV, YouTube
16. Vanishing on 7th Street (2010)
Directed by: Brad Anderson
Starring: Hayden Christensen, Thandiwe Newton, John Leguizamo
From Session 9 and The Machinist director Brad Anderson, Vanishing on 7th Street is an atmospheric, Twilight Zone-esque tale about a group of survivors (Christensen, Newton, Leguizamo) holed up in a bar after most of the population of Detroit mysteriously disappears, leaving only piles of empty clothes behind. They discover that shadowy entities are lurking in the darkness, so they must scavenge for sources of light to survive.
The movie has a creepy, dreamlike quality and a pervasive sense of existential dread. Like Bird Box, it taps into primal childhood fears of the dark and the unknown. It’s more about mood and metaphor than explanations or action – what do the shadows represent? The erasure of identity, the darkness of the soul, death itself? It’s open to interpretation, which may frustrate some viewers but intrigue others.
If you like ambiguous, arty horror that relies on suggestion and symbolism, Vanishing on 7th Street is worth checking out. The lead actors elevate the material, and Anderson creates some striking visuals on a low budget. It’s the kind of movie that sticks with you and invites discussion and analysis.
Where to watch: AMC+, Tubi, Pluto TV, Vudu, Kanopy, rent on Apple TV
17. In the Tall Grass (2019)
Directed by: Vincenzo Natali
Starring: Patrick Wilson, Laysla De Oliveira, Avery Whitted, Will Buie Jr., Harrison Gilbertson
Based on the novella by Stephen King and his son Joe Hill, In the Tall Grass follows a group of unfortunate people lured into an overgrown field by a crying child, only to find themselves trapped, disoriented, and tormented by a sinister supernatural force.
Like Bird Box, the movie creates a sense of claustrophobic terror as the characters struggle to navigate a hostile environment using limited senses. The tall grass messes with sight, sound, and direction, rendering the victims helpless and panicked. Time and space also warp in mind-bending ways.
While the characters and dialogue are a bit thin, the movie delivers some effectively creepy visuals and a pervasive sense of hallucinatory dread. The mythological undertones are intriguing if underdeveloped. Patrick Wilson brings his usual gravitas as the estranged father searching for his son in the tall grass.
Where to watch: Netflix
18. The Divide (2011)
Directed by: Xavier Gens
Starring: Lauren German, Michael Biehn, Milo Ventimiglia, Courtney B. Vance, Ashton Holmes
The Divide is a brutal, nihilistic thriller about a group of survivors who take shelter in the basement of their apartment building after a nuclear attack on New York City. As their supplies dwindle and no rescue comes, they descend into madness, paranoia, and savagery.
Like Bird Box, the movie is an unflinching look at how quickly social order and morality break down in a crisis. The characters are not likable, but they feel disturbingly realistic in their flaws and failings. The claustrophobic setting and grimy aesthetic add to the oppressive sense of hopelessness.
The Divide is not an easy watch – it’s relentlessly bleak and features graphic violence and sexual assault. But it’s a powerful psychological horror story that sticks with you. The talented cast fully commits to the disturbing material. If you want to see the darkest aspects of human nature laid bare, this is the movie for you.
Where to watch: Tubi, Kanopy, Plex, Vudu, Crackle, rent on Apple TV
So there you have it – 18 gripping movies to watch if you loved Bird Box and are craving more high-stakes survival horror with a psychological edge. From alien creatures to zombie fungi to inexplicable mass blindness, these films all tap into that primal fear of facing a malevolent force that robs us of our senses, our reason, our humanity.
Whether you’re a fan of zombie outbreaks, alien invasions, or mysterious supernatural phenomena, this list has something for everyone. So, gather your friends, family, or even your trusty companion animal, and get ready to dive into these captivating tales of survival and suspense.
