WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Bird Box, streaming now on Netflix.

Love The Walking Dead or hate it, no one could have predicted the cultural phenomenon AMC's post-apocalyptic drama has become. What began as an unassuming comic, the horror property as grown into a multimedia empire, with a television spinoff, video games, novels, fan conventions, multiple planned movies, and a mountain of merchandising. That's the kind of rare success that most producers, networks and streaming services can only dream of.

Netflix might have been able to capitalize on the hunger for that kind post-apocalyptic entertainment if it had only adapted Bird Box as a series, rather than a movie.

Don't get us wrong, Bird Box is an emotionally riveting work of art that follows Sandra Bullock's Malorie as she must journey. blindfolded, with two children in a perilous world, while trying to avoid supernatural entities that assume the appearance of victims' worst fears, driving them to suicide. However, there's a lot to unpack in author Josh Malerman's 2014 debut novel, which may have been better served if only it were drawn out over a couple of seasons.

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Bird Box builds an intriguing universe, but the film glosses over a lot of it; understandable, given its 124-minute run time. For starters, the threat makes a greater impact than, say, hordes of zombies (sorry, walkers) trudging across the landscape. The film spans five years, in which Malorie goes from a regretful one-night stand to holing up with other survivors in a mansion, to setting out for a refugee camp.

The origin of the entities that plague Malorie and the other survivors is so abstract, an entire season could be devoted to sussing out what it is. The mystery propagates, with some theorizing the threat is biblical as they see dead loved ones calling them to the afterlife. Others believe they're plagued by aliens. Or maybe they're terrorists. In other words, the enigma of these unseen antagonists, and why birds can sense them, could be prolonged, a la Lost, without ever seeming as if the producers were merely filling time.

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What also holds so much potential for Bird Box is its other villains aren't typical human tyrants like The Governor or Negan. Bird Box's gangs of scavengers are cult members immune to the supernatural menace, controlled by it to bring innocents out into the light so they can be exposed to its terror. Diving into the past and really seeing how the cult formed would add a fresh element to the post-apocalyptic drama.

Bird Box also covers more ground globally, as it starts off showing the infection spreading in Europe and Asia. That sets it up as a story that could be told with pockets of survivors from different countries and cultures. That's a piece of diversity The Walking Dead is looking to improve on with its spinoffs. There's also the blind school at the end of the film, the refugee camp where survivors are cared for. It's a fascinating society that deserves further exploration.

Finally, if it's one thing The Walking Dead does so well it's to connect the audience to the characters, so that when the threat of death looms, fans are ready to respond (for example, the #IfDarylDiesWeRiot movement, the loss of Carl, and the divisive exit of Rick). The point is, while Bird Box has interesting characters, apart from Malorie and her kids, we don't get the time necessary to become invested in the characters, so when the entity does claim their lives, it doesn't resonate as much.

Ultimately, a lot is crammed into one film. And with Bird Box touching upon so many sociopolitical themes -- racism, crime, xenophobia, the refugee crisis, religion -- it's a shame it wasn't given a lot more creative space to develop its message of hope in the face of overwhelming crisis.

Directed by Susanne Biers, Netflix's Bird Box is now available to stream, and stars Sandra Bullock, Trevante Rhodes, Jacki Weaver, Rosa Salazar, Danielle Macdonald, Lil Rel Howery, Tom Hollander, BD Wong, Sarah Paulson, Colson Baker and John Malkovich.