It was a 7pm on December 23rd when I realised that I had worked my way through the majority of Netflix’s sickly sweet, Christmas film offerings.

A Christmas Prince ? Watched the first AND the sequel. The Princess Switch ? I’ve seen it twice. What about The Holiday Calendar, I hear you ask? So ridiculously bad that it became endearingly okay (note: not good, just okay). Now add in the classic annual viewings ofLove ActuallyandThe Holidayand I was in a Christmas-film induced coma of ridiculously cheesy plot lines, and festive fluff.

So I went for something a little different and clicked play on one of Netflix’s latest releases,Bird Box.

Starring Sandra Bullock andMoonlightactor, Trevante Rhodes,Bird Boxis not a Christmas film, but you should definitely watch it this festive period.

It’s based on the post-apocalyptic novel by Josh Malerman and it had me gripped from the very beginning.

The premise alone is terrifying. The entire human race is being ravaged by ‘the creatures’ – an unseen presence driving people to take their own lives.

Soon our survivors, led by Sandra Bullock, realise that the only way to avoid succumbing to this is by wearing blindfolds and blacking out all windows to the outside world.

There’s just one problem, ‘the creatures’ aren’t the only ones after them.

Watch the trailer for Netflix’s Bird Box right over here:

Bird Boxwas a deeply riveting and gripping watch, which had me obscuring my vision at several points during the two-hour movie. This wasn’t helped by the film’s eerie and haunting soundtrack, multiple plot twists, and the fact that as the characters were stumbling around blind-folded, as a viewer, we are privy to all the potential dangers that await them.

It reminded me of the best bits ofThe Walking Deadcrossed withA Quiet Placeand had me literally jumping up to close my blinds and windows after the film.

Bird Box’sTwitter reception had a similar anxiety-triggering response and this is what people had to say:

Wanna have anxiety for 3 hours ? Watch #BirdBox

— Cardi C (@SimplyHER_) December 23, 2018

Walkin outside like this after watching Bird Box pic.twitter.com/3ekfYGf1pZ

— QUXXN (@ayookaykay27) December 23, 2018

Me at the end of Bird Box: pic.twitter.com/4lHL0Qjscz

— Karla (@kmilivn) December 23, 2018

Me on New Years Eve , after watching #birdbox pic.twitter.com/6Y5wbWGfoa

— Jaii (@jaiilux) December 23, 2018

Currently watching bird box and my anxiety level is through the roof pic.twitter.com/6aTiDrOVeR

— Ray-Ray (@RachelleKS) December 22, 2018

So if you too need something a bit more gripping in between your mince pie food-coma and up-tenth viewing ofLove Actually, change the pace withBird Box. It will definitely have your heart rate sky-rocketing.

Have you watched Bird Box? What did you think of the film? Tell us in comment below.