Creatures (Bird Box)

"They´re coming! They won´t hurt you. As a matter of fact, it´s a beautiful thing, friend."

- An insane follower of the Creatures to Tom.

The Creatures a​re the main antagonists of the 2014 novel Bird Box by Josh Malerman, and its 2018 film adaptation of the same name. They are a race of unseen beings who cause any who look at them to go insane.

Biography
The true origin, motives, intent and even appearance of the Creatures is unknown. They are never seen in person, the most of them that is ever witnessed is a shifting, amorphous shadow.

Next to nothing about them is ever revealed, although Charlie, a store clerk, theorizes that they are demons, capable of taking on the appearance of a targets worst fears. However, nothing is ever confirmed, not even what they look like.

Any who so much as look at them immediately suffer from severe psychological damage, often driving them to commit suicide by any means available.

A select few, however, seemingly those already suffering from mental instability, instead come to revere the Creatures in an almost holy manner, referring to them as ¨Beautiful¨ and helping them in hunting down other Humans, usually killing them by forcing them to look at the Creatures.

Bird Box
In a post-apocalyptic world, Malorie Hayes advises two young, unnamed children that they will be going downstream on a river in a boat. She strictly instructs them to not remove their blindfolds, or else they will die.

Five years earlier, a pregnant Malorie is visited by her older sister, Jessica. A news report is being shown on television about unexplained mass suicides originating in Romania quickly spreading across Europe. Malorie has a routine pregnancy checkup with Jessica accompanying her to the hospital. When leaving the hospital, Malorie sees a woman bashing her head into a glass panel followed by others panicking as chaos quickly erupts throughout Los Angeles. Malorie and Jessica attempt to drive away from the violence, but Jessica witnesses the phenomenon affecting the masses, loses control of herself as she drives, and the car ends up overturning. An injured Malorie then witnesses Jessica walk into the path of an oncoming load truck, killing herself.

Malorie attempts to flee on foot through the mass chaos on the streets. A woman, Lydia, invites Malorie over to their house for safety, even though her husband, Douglas, disagrees. However, right before she reaches Malorie, she goes into a trance, begins talking to her dead mother, and casually climbs into a burning car, which subsequently explodes. Malorie is rescued and brought into their house by Tom, a fleeing passerby. While recovering at their base, one of the survivors, Charlie, theorizes that an otherworldly entity has invaded Earth, taking the form of its victims' worst fears and driving them insane before causing them to commit suicide. At the insistence of Tom, who is the leader of the group, they cover all windows in the house and blindfold themselves whenever they must venture outside. Later, Greg volunteers to tie himself to a chair while monitoring the surveillance cameras to find the issue of the entity but kills himself by rocking his chair violently and plunging his head in a nearby corner after seeing it.

As the supply of food decreases (and with the arrival of a new survivor, Olympia, who is also pregnant), Tom, Malorie, Charlie, and fellow survivors Douglas and Lucy decide to go to a supermarket close by to restock. Malorie finds pet birds and decides to take them along with their supplies. The group attempts to help a coworker of Charlie who is locked outside the supermarket begging for help, and whom Charlie describes as "a little crazy". As they contemplate the risks of opening the door, the birds Malorie was saving go into a hysterical fury. The group is attacked by the infected coworker, who was not killed by the entity but is instead used to infect others. Charlie sacrifices himself to save the others, who are able to make it back safely to the house.

Soon thereafter, Olympia lets Gary, a stranger and apparent lone survivor of another group, into the house, against Douglas's objections. Douglas gets extremely upset and starts threatening the others with a shotgun, and is knocked unconscious by Cheryl. Gary starts to take out various drawings of the Creatures and seems to undergo a trance, revealing himself as a follower the Creatures when he arrived. He then knocks out Tom and proceeds to remove all the coverings from all the windows. Olympia then jumps out of the window and Cheryl grabs a pair of scissors and stabs herself in the neck. Douglas is killed by Gary when Douglas tries to stop him. While Malorie tries to protect the newborn babies, Tom fights and eventually kills Gary. Five years later, Tom and Malorie are living together with the children, whose only names are "Boy" and "Girl". They receive a transmission from a survivor stating that they are well and safe at a community hidden in the forest. The four decide to go to the community, but are ambushed by a group of infected survivors along the way. Tom sacrifices himself to save Malorie and the children.

Malorie, the children, and their pet birds, which are used to warn against the Creatures, make their way blindfolded down the river on a boat. They fight off an infected survivor and survive raging rapids. The Creatures chase and tempt the children and Malorie to remove their blindfolds but is unsuccessful, and the three eventually reach the community.

Malorie learns that the community is a former school for the blind and that many members of the community are blind. Because of this, Malorie releases the pet birds from the box to the other birds up on the ceiling. Malorie finally gives the children names, Tom and Olympia.