It’s become a running joke that it takes an eternity for new seasons of Netflix original shows to arrive, and the same approach can technically be applied to its feature-length franchises too, after Bird Box Barcelona finally premiered almost five years after the Sandra Bullock-led original. 19122o

The apocalyptic horror thriller was a massive cultural and social media sensation that captured imaginations all over the world, with the literary adaptation winding up as one of the streaming service’s most-watched in-house movies of all-time, and it still sits on the Top 10 half a decade on from its debut.

In most cases, additional installments would be churned out as quick as possible, but Bird Box‘s moment in the zeitgeist has long since ed. However, that hasn’t prevented Barcelona from opening its eyes and gazing right at the number one spot on the most-watched charts, with FlixPatrol revealing the standalone spin-off to have arrived as the top-viewed title in 45 countries in total.

It doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel in of its narrative, and critics have been a lot colder to the second chapter than its predecessor, but if it draws in the numbers Netflix is hoping for then there’s no doubt going to be even more Bird Box to come in the future.

The world has plenty of potential for further exploration, let’s just hope it turns out to be a little more exciting should those plans for a string of localized offshoots come to fruition as Netflix shifts its IP-driven strategy to conquer the world one nation at a time.

Come hell or high water, Netflix is going to go out of its way to expand and originate as many in-house franchises as possible, but the streaming service’s latest plan for orchestrating a worldwide IP is by no means guaranteed to succeed.

While star-powered blockbusters including Extraction, The Gray Man, Red Notice, and The Old Guard all have follow-ups in the works, they were always guaranteed to succeed based on the big names, bigger budget, and mass-market appeal to subscribers all over the globe.

However, localized spin-offs and offshoots are an entirely different animal, and the jury remains out as to whether or not it’s got the legs to thrive in the long-term. For one thing, as solid as Army of Thieves was, the European-set crime caper was supposed to be the first of many standalone stories set in Zack Snyder’s zombie universe, but no more have materialized and the animated companion series is stuck in development hell.

Meanwhile, remaking Money Heist as Korea’s t Economic Area was a pointless exercise given that it barely scratched the surface of the global most-watched charts, while this weekend’s Bird Box Barcelona holds a tepid 49 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, despite the fact it’ll be guaranteed to top the rankings.

Head of European film output Teresa Moreno believes “we as Netflix can offer a nuanced way of adapting titles across formats and languages,” though, while Bird Box producer Chris Morgan offered that “having a strong, successful, worldwide IP to anchor subsequent chapters around the world is definitely a confidence booster” per The Hollywood Reporter, but the jury is well and truly out when there’s still no evidence that the quality is going to be there to match the quantity.

As a general rule of thumb, the industry tends to franchise its biggest hits as soon as possible in order to capitalize on the initial buzz, but it’s taken Netflix almost five whole years to expand upon one of its biggest-ever hits through Bird Box Barcelona.

The Sandra Bullock-led original was a certified cultural sensation after releasing in November of 2018, hoovering up viewing hours like it was nobody’s business and inspiring countless viral crazes. The downside is that its moment in the spotlight has long since ed, and the spin-off that premieres this coming Friday isn’t going to propel the property back to the top of the relevancy pile.

Expanding such a singular concept and using it as the basis of what’s presumably being designed as a string of localized standalone movies is a solid one, but as much as Bird Box Barcelona tries – and succeeds on numerous counts – to expand the mythology, it doesn’t do enough to differentiate itself from its predecessor, while simultaneously dedicating its time to a few too many questions that it doesn’t plan on answering.

This time around, Mario Casas’ Sebastián is our entry point to the story, as he embarks upon a journey largely similar to the one undertaken by Bullock’s Malorie in the opener; the world has been overrun by mysterious creatures that instantly incite suicide among those unfortunate enough to lay eyes on them, with several factions and splinter groups pushing different agendas emerging to try and seize whatever piece of society left that they can.

Whether or not Bullock declined the opportunity to return for a direct sequel based on literary successor Malorie is anybody’s guess, but watching Bird Box Barcelona it’s incredibly easy to imagine that you’d end up with the exact same film beat-for-beat regardless of whether or not the lead was a returning character, a brand new one, or just about anybody plucked off the street in the midst of the apocalypse.

That’s neither a good or a bad thing, but it is somewhat of a damning indictment on the approach to Barcelona as a whole. Writers and directors Álex and David Pastor hit all the right notes from a technical perspective; there are ravaged streets, bursts of gruesome violence, tension-ratcheting set pieces, and a couple of grandstanding action beats that inevitably feature Netflix’s relentless urge to use terrible CGI fire as often as humanly possible, but at no point does it feel like a completely different animal to Bird Box. It exists, it’s a diverting enough watch, and it manages to expand both the scope and mythology while leaving the door open for additional stories – replete with a tantalizing cliffhanger – and yet it can’t shake off that feeling it doesn’t need to exist.

Much like Bird Box, Barcelona incorporates dual-wielding timelines, religious zealots who operate under the impression humanity is being published for its sins, scrappy bands of survivors suspicious of anyone who pleads innocence in the hopes of being welcomed into the fold, and breathless escapes that threaten to plunge them directly into the line of sight of the sinister beings that have decimated the population, and there’s enough style on display to make them every bit as effective as they are over-familiar.

Without going into spoilers, there are a couple of intriguing wrinkles that do present brand new opportunities with which to approach the overarching Bird Box mythos, but they’re only half-explained at best. Meanwhile, several larger questions are posed regarding the who, what, when, and how of the unseen monsters, but there’s never anything remotely resembling a definitive answer; again, there’s always the chance future entries will tie up these loose threads, but it would be nice for a sense of closure that underlines Barcelona as a self-contained story as opposed to table-setting for yet more table-setting to come.

That being said, Casas – who was excellent in Netflix’s Harlan Coben adaptation The Innocent – makes for an excellent anchor. Bedraggled, forlorn, but always hiding something just under the surface, he’s haunted by demons of both a literal and figurative variety with motivations that are never made abundantly clear until the third act, although your mileage may vary on a “twist” that’s easily perceptible from the very first scene.

Barbarian breakout Georgina Campbell makes for a worthy foil as increasingly suspicious survivor Claire, too, with the stellar work of the entire ensemble Bird Box Barcelona‘s strongest method of drawing you into a story that does exactly what it needs to do – and cracks open a few more doors the franchise may or may not end up walking through – but it’s difficult to imagine it’ll come close to seizing the zeitgeist on a level that’s even remotely comparable to its forebear.

At the end of the day, Netflix has built out the Bird Box universe with a hybrid of spin-off and sequel that’s solid, unspectacular, and entirely functional. It does the job it was created to do, but when there’s a unique lore ripe for further exploration, it could have easily been so much more.

With the rate at which Netflix is purging and canceling content, it should be near impossible to be excited about its slate. But the deliciously terrifying selections for its horror wing alone are enough to make disgruntled subscribers — who like me are busy penning a symphony of acute betrayal — sign a temporary truce. 

The streamer is attracting ire from all directions at the moment — and threatening to do things it pretty much does on the regular. But unless you are planning to jump ship anytime soon, it is time to focus on the silver lining on the horizon — the ten uber-scary horror shows and films that are just waiting to give you a lifetime of much-welcome nightmares. 

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The last we saw Cha Hyun-Soo (Song Kang) and the surviving residents of Green Home in the aftermath of the ongoing apocalypse (where the infected transformed into monsters, with some having control over their altered form), the former had found himself back in the clutches of the monster as Ui-myeong now wearing the body of the long-dead Sang Kook. At the same time, the survivors are whisked off to a safety camp, not knowing if their savior made it out alive. 

The 2nd season of the impatiently-awaited Sweet Home — whose third season has already received the green flag — is set to pick up where the last chapter ended to explore “the various dimensions of human nature and desires” as its returning new cast “find themselves at a crossroads for survival.” Well, whew! At least Netflix is not dead-set on repeating history with this one.

Release date: Q4 2023, so it can debut as early as October!

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Spin-off of the 2018 horror thriller, Bird Box — which still leaves me cowering under my sheets in fear — Bird Box Barcelona expands on the mind-numbing terrors of its predecessor where invisible entities prey on the twisted fears of anyone unlucky enough to lay eyes on them and lead them to kill themselves in the most horrible ways. 

With the world population severely decimated, the story focuses on Sebastian and his unlikely team-up with a few survivors in Barcelona as the unexplainable forces pushing human beings toward death have evolved with concerning speed, making the already difficult task of surviving them even more impossible. 

Will the film see Sandra Bullock’s Malorie — the prime protagonist of the first film — make a comeback? So far, nothing official has been revealed, but if the survivors (at least a few of them) this time do manage to trump death, maybe they will meet up with Malorie and the other survivors who found safety at the end of Bird Box.

Release date: July 14, 2023.

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Ah, the last Mike Flanagan creation on Netflix as he shifts his allegiances to Amazon Studios – The Fall of the House of Usher is a limited series based on an extremely scary Edgar Allan Poe short story of the same name. The story focuses on three characters — an unnamed narrator and twins Roderick and Madeline who are the last surviving of the Usher household. The narrator arrives at their mansion at the request of his childhood friend, Roderick, who is ailed by a mysterious illness, which also plagues the rather unnerving Madeline as well. 

The creepy atmosphere only escalates while the story progresses as the narrator gets to witness firsthand how the nonsensical horrors Roderick describes infesting the mansion actually do exist. Someone is horrifyingly buried alive with deadly consequences for everyone involved leaving the narrator fleeing a house actually splitting in half. 

How accurately Flanagan plans to depict the story as despite it being centered on just three characters, its adaptation is set to see many actors from the director’s past ventures on Netflix as well as new faces, including Mark Hamill who is set to play “a character surprisingly at home in the shadows.” The one answer we do have — it is going to be one hell of a fright fest. 

Release date: Fall of 2023.

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Touted to be the next stellar Korean horror serving, the series Gyeonnseong Creature is set in 1945 in Gyeongseong (now Seoul), South Korea, where people are mysteriously going missing. The increasingly concerning events bring together Jang Tae-Sang (Park Seo-Joon) – an informant with money on his side, and Yoon Chae-Ok (Han So-hee) who is a skilled fighter and an expert in finding missing people. 

But the mystery soon becomes a terrible reality as the duo finds themselves fighting for survival against supernatural creatures whose existence is dependent on human greed. 

Release date: Q4 2023.

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Announced earlier this year, Sister Death (aka Hermana Muerte) sets its protagonist, —a novice nun Narcisa blessed with supernatural powers — in post-war Spain, where she s a former convent-turned-school as a teacher but soon comes face-to-face with the secrets kept on the grounds of the abbey and overshadowing the life of everyone who lives there. 

What makes the series a must-watch is the fact that as a prequel to 2017’s chilling Spanish film, Veronica, which was loosely based on true events and saw its titular character unsuccessfully trying to bid farewell to the demonic entities she unleashed upon her siblings during an unsuccessful seance. During her various attempts, Veronica is helped by her school’s blind nun, known as “Sister Death,” who revealed that she could see dark spirits, and one day deliberately blinded herself to stop it. 

So, what could have happened to Narcisa to drive her to blind herself voluntarily? Well, the answer is not far away.

Release date: Oct. 7, 2023.

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A Thai horror series, Delete brings to life the most basic human emotion — the impulsive desire to erase the existence of a person who hurts us or inconveniences us in some way. In the world of Delete, this secretly coveted power becomes a reality via a mysterious mobile phone that harbors the ability to make people disappear. Already a dangerous object, its worst consequence comes to the forefront when it is put to use by those stuck in complicated relationships and wishing to hide their secrets. 

Release date: June 28, 2023.

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A continuation of Legendary and Warner Bros.’ Monsterverse, Skull Island will follow a group of explorers striving to rescue a woman named Annie, only to find themselves stranded on the infamous island that is home to terrifying giant-sized creatures and ruled by the indomitable King Kong. Is survival in the cards or will leaving the island alive be an option? Only the series’ debut on Netflix will tell.

Release date: June 22, 2023.

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If you are seriously missing stories of old haunted houses and unsuspecting victims getting possessed by evil demonic entities, The Deliverance is what you need to catch next. 

Based on the real-life story known as the Ammons Haunting case that took place in Indiana, U.S., the Lee Daniels film is set to depict the horrors unleashed on a single mother, Ebony, when her three children are possessed by demons when they move into a new home. With the skeptics questioning the authenticity of her pleas for help, Ebony finds herself in a “spiritual battle between her faith, her life, and the souls of her children — a battle that could have deadly consequences for all of them.”

Release date: There is no official release date, but it is expected to debut sometime in 2023.

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This is going to be more of a heart-wrenching experience, what with Henry Cavill bidding farewell to Geralt of Rivia, but it is hard to imagine The Witcher failing to weave its usual buffet of frightening creatures into the fantasy adventure as it gears up to make the much-dreaded switch to Liam Hemsworth as the new monster hunter. If the official synopsis is any hint, Geralt will be up against “monarchs, mages, and beasts of the Continent” as he strives to save Ciri from their greedy and deadly claws in season 3.

Will he succeed but lose his life in the process? Or is Netflix simply switching the actors, hoping that Hemsworth will replace Cavill in our minds (*cough* and fantasies)? Well, whether it is the real-world consequences or the tornado brewing in the world of The Witcher, one thing is for certain — chaos is coming. 

Release date: Volume One: June 29, 2023, and Volume Two: July 27, 2023.

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The world is divided between those choosing to be practical and believing what can be explained with facts and those who embrace the mysteries of life with definitions that are not defined by logic. Sarah (Sarah Snook) — a fertility doctor — firmly finds herself in the first category until her seven-year-old daughter Mia starts exhibiting increasingly strange behavior and starts claiming that she is her mother’s sister, Alice, who — wait for it — went missing years ago at the age of seven.

Is Mia telling the truth? Based on the looks of the official trailer, it is obvious that Run Rabbit Run isn’t going to be a simple tale of reunion or a child projecting the problems plaguing her by pretending to be her mother’s sister reborn. Something dangerous is afoot that is threatening to unearth the secrets of the past and unravel the present. 

Release date: June 28, 2023.

The bigwigs at Netflix are happy to repeat over and over again that they want an in-house franchise with the potential to rival the likes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Star Wars, and Harry Potter, but so far the streaming service has… well, none.

Money Heist got a remake and has a spin-off on the way, but it didn’t originate as a Netflix original, and the same goes for the blockbuster Knives Out sequels. The Witcher underwent plenty of rapid expansion, but fans have turned their backs on the fantasy universe ever since it was announced Henry Cavill was leaving to be replaced with Liam Hemsworth.

The Gray Man has a follow-up and an offshoot in the works despite not being very good, those back-to-back Red Notice sequels have gone radio silent, Stranger Things is ending, Shadow and Bone may follow suit, which sort of leaves Bridgerton and Extraction as two of the very few outliers, which leads neatly onto Bird Box Barcelona.

The original was a massive hit back in December of 2018, becoming one of Netflix’s most-watched originals ever and establishing itself as a certifiable cultural phenomenon, but the first spin-off arriving almost five years later really feels as if the boat has been missed. There was a time to cash in on the Bird Box craze, and it was a long time ago, which underlines Netflix’s approach in microcosm.

If subscribers aren’t waiting years between seasons then sequels are coming along with too long of a gap – The Old Guard 2? – when history has shown countless times over that the biggest and best franchises survive and thrive when work on additional installments begins imminently, not whenever the fancy takes.

In the normal times, streaming services release tons of content which can be hard to keep track of and does not always stand out. The pandemic supercharged this for outlets like Netflix, and, while they have had tough times and major changes lately, the business still thinks they can have some 2018 magic as their new trailer for the Bird Box: Barcelona spin-off adventure shows.

For those who are not familiar or have only the foggiest recollection, this apocalyptic horror film the company put out a trailer for on their YouTube channel earlier today takes place in the same world as Bird Box which starred Sandra Bullock and popped up on the service days before Christmas 2018. The franchise based on a 2014 novel follows people trying to survive against creatures whose mere sight makes people want to kill themselves. It became the most-watched film on the service at the time, received mixed reviews, and sparked a social media “challenge” where an idiot drove her car into traffic while blindfolded for some clout. A direct sequel following Bullock’s character was in development as of 2020, but, for now, it appears the spin-off is all fans will get.

Much of it appears to be the same as the first, but in a different location, though a line uttered in the teaser suggests shifts, too.

“These creatures, they are changing.”

Whether this will be some deceptive editing or an actual part of the story remains to be seen. For now, all fans can do is wait until its July 14 release, and only then will they see Sebastian navigating “his own survival journey through the desolate streets of Barcelona.” Here, he will form “uneasy alliances with other survivors” and, all the while, an “even more sinister threat grows.”

The increasingly long waits between seasons of new TV shows on streaming – and arguably Netflix in particular – has become a common irritance among subscribers who often have to wait upwards of two years for their favorite shows to return, but Bird Box: Barcelona has them all beat by arriving five years late to the party.

When the feature film premiered back in 2018, it became a cultural phenomenon that captured the cultural zeitgeist like few other Netflix originals had done before, or have done since for that matter. The psychological sci-fi horror ended up as one of the platform’s biggest-ever hits, and spawned social media challenges that took over everyone’s timelines on every major app.

And yet, when was the last time you heard anyone talk about it? Sandra Bullock stumbling blindfolded through the apocalypse was an entertaining enough ride while it lasted, but surely it’s way too late to be pulling the trigger on a localized episodic expansion that unfolds in the titular Spanish city.

Then again, the company has been crying out for as many potential expanded universes as possible, so why not Bird Box? It might be able to recapture the magic that turned the original into a sensation that came close to taking over the world and the apex of its initial popularity, but it remains to be seen if anyone is even going to care half as much now that we’re half a decade down the line.

There’s no shame in being proven wrong, but more Bird Box seems like a desperate attempt to try and recapture lightning in a bottle.