20 Horror Movie Characters We NEVER See

Though Netflix's post-apocalyptic horror film Bird Box was ultimately a bit of a disappointment, it at least gets credit for having the restraint to never show the central creatures.

After all, in the film itself anyone who looks at the monsters will be swiftly compelled to kill themselves, and so there's something thematically fitting about we, the viewers, also never getting to look at them.

However, it almost didn't go this way - during development, producers insisted that screenwriter Eric Heisserer write a dream sequence where protagonist Malorie (Sandra Bullock) encounters one of the monsters.

A scene featuring an on-screen monster was indeed shot, though Heisserer, director Susanne Bier, and Sandra Bullock all pointed out that the result looked incredibly silly, and so the decision was made to never show the creatures to the audience.

While Bird Box didn't live up to its full potential, at least Bier had the good sense to push back against the producers and let our imagination fill in the monstrous blanks.