Do You See the ‘Bird Box’ Monster In ‘Bird Box Barcelona’?

Anyone who watched the 2018 Netflix horror movie Bird Box will likely remember that, while you got a front-row seat to Sandra Bullock’s considerable talent, you never actually got to see the monster that was chasing her. Now that the Spanish-language spin-off film, Bird Box Barcelona, is streaming on Netflix, many are wondering if this will be the movie to finally reveal the mysterious creatures that are supposedly so life-changing, one look causes you to go insane. In the movie, anyone who sees the monsters either immediately kills themselves, or—if there is darkness in their soul—they lose their minds and try to force others to look at the monster, too.

The choice to never show the Bird Box monster on screen in the first film was a deliberate one, but it was also a choice made late in the production. In a 2018 interview, the cast and crew said that one of the film’s producers initially insisted on a scene with the monster, so the crew did film it. But the result, screenwriter Eric Heisserer said, completely ruined the tone of the movie.

“It was snake-like,” Heisserer said in an interview with Bloody Disgusting. “I was like, ‘I don’t want to see it when it first happens. Just bring it into the room. We’ll shoot the scene,’” Heisserer said. “I turn and he’s like this [growling at me.] It’s making me laugh. It was just a long fat baby.”

In that same interview, Bullock agreed, describing the Bird Box monster as “a green man with a horrific baby face.”

Director Susanne Bier added that the scene with the monster ruined the film’s tense tone, and instead made it comical. “It so easily becomes funny. We actually shot that and spent a lot of energy on, but every time I saw it, I was like this is not going to be tense. It’s just going to be funny. At first, Sandy was like, ‘I don’t want to see it’ because she thought it was scary. Then it was like, ‘Don’t show it to me because [I’ll laugh].’ Every time I did it, I was like, ‘Shit, that’s a different film.’”

But Bird Box Barcelona, written and directed by Álex and David Pastor, is helmed by a different team. Did they honor the wishes of the original Bird Box crew, or did they decide to go rogue? Warning: Bird Box Barcelona spoilers ahead.

Do you see the Bird Box monster in Bird Box Barcelona?

You do not see the Bird Box creature in the new Bird Box movie on Netflix. Sorry to disappoint! Like in the 2018 film, Bird Box Barcelona opts to never actually show the audience the monsters. So, thankfully, there are no fat, snake-like babies in this film.

Personally, I think that’s a smart move. After all, the entire conceit of the movie is that you can’t look at this creature without losing your mind. If we, the audience, got to see the monster and then didn’t lose our minds, that would kind of ruin the magic, now wouldn’t it? (Alternatively, what if we saw the monster and then did lose our marbles? Then our families would have to sue Netflix, and it’d be a whole legal thing.)

And let’s be real: Any sort of CGI monster in the Bird Box universe would inevitably be a let-down, no matter how visually stunning it was. We’ve now spent two entire films hearing about how impossibly, ineffably beautiful and terrible these things are. The visual is, we’ve been told, beyond human comprehension. There’s no way that anything made by a mundane human computer—or mundane human special effects department—would live up to the hype.

That said, the Bird Box Barcelona ending does tease viewers with a cliffhanger that seems to suggest, that, should we get another Bird Box film, the Bird Box monster might just be revealed. Maybe. You’ll have to stay tuned to find out. Netflix knows how to keep ’em coming back for more!