Do not open your eyes. Never lose sight of survival.

While these are just taglines of the novel inspired, Netflix phenomenon “Bird Box,” they are newfound mantras of a few daredevils now blindfolding themselves before doing everyday activities and sometimes dangerous stunts.

Like the monsters in “Bird Box,” the movie itself overcomes the viewer in a chilling embrace, sparking curiosity in what life would be like blind.

“Bird Box” released on Friday, Dec. 21 to streaming is both a post-apocalyptic movie of a woman struggling to survive in a world of monsters and a psychological thriller surrounding a woman overcoming her inability to love and connect.

The movie begins with Malorie, played by Sandra Bullock, living life as a hermit. She stays home and paints, her fridge is empty, she refuses to talk to her mom and has no one else in her life besides her sister that visits her periodically. She is even afraid of giving birth to her own child that should be coming any day.

Malorie tells her sister, “loneliness is just incidental. It’s really about people’s inability to connect.” Our protagonist is stating what her problem is, but she refuses to fix it.

Only by going through the journey in the rest of the film with meeting survivors, suffering loss, being vulnerable and forced to be selfless, will Malorie learn the error in her ways.

Starting around the summer, a force appeared in parts of Siberia and Russia, making people suicidal. This force spread to California where our movie takes place. When seen, this force alters people’s vision and perception of reality depending on the person.

Happy and pure people harm themselves, and the deranged, having already lived their deepest darkest fears, harm others.

Perhaps the saddest example of Malorie’s inability to form relationships and fear of taking the leap to even try is the fact that she names her own son, Boy, and her adopted daughter, Girl.

After the monsters consume the survivors one by one, Malorie is forced to take Boy and Girl across the rapids on a wooden boat, blindfolded, relying solely on sound. When their boat capsizes and separates everyone, Malorie is forced to learn what being truly alone feels like.

When she reunites with Boy and Girl, she apologizes and right before the monster approaches them, Malorie pleads that it take her instead of them.

She has now learned to be selfless. In the final scene of the movie, she labels herself as Boy and Girls’ mother and gives them proper names.

Overall, the movie is thrilling and goes for the shock factor. It is rated R and for good reason: the deaths are gory. Unfortunately, Malorie’s personally story arc is better executed than the overarching story of psychedelic monsters, leaving the rest of the movie to feel shallow and bland. The lack of information about the monsters does not help either. However, none of this stopped people across the globe to try the Bird Box challenge. Netflix recently put out a statement urging viewers to keep themselves out of harm’s way.

Can’t believe I have to say this, but: PLEASE DO NOT HURT YOURSELVES WITH THIS BIRD BOX CHALLENGE. We don’t know how this started, and we appreciate the love, but Boy and Girl have just one wish for 2019 and it is that you not end up in the hospital due to memes.

— Netflix US (@netflix) January 2, 2019

At best the challenge is hilarious. At worst, dangerous. A recent headline from ABC News reads “Bird Box challenge leads to two-car crash in the US, despite Netflix warnings.” Another from CNN reads “Blindfolded Utah teen crashes her car while doing the ‘Bird Box’ challenge.” Countless Youtubers have uploaded videos of this challenge, further encouraging people to take the Bird Box Challenge to the next level, and even to take it too far. Heed the warnings and enjoy the movie for what it is: a movie, not a lifestyle.

That being said, please enjoy our ‘Bird Box Challenge’ video below.