Black Box Review – Tom Brittney Deserved Superman, Not This Crash-Landing

Have you ever watched a movie where you wish someone would have reined in a filmmaker before their worst instincts took over? That’s how I feel about Steven Quale’s Black Box.

Written by Stephen Susco, who penned 2004’s The Grudge, the story explores the mystery of Vero Airlines Flight 298. On the way to New Orleans, the plane experiences turbulence – in both senses of the word. An elderly passenger becomes agitated, issues a warning, then drops dead. Another passenger named Jeremy (Tom Brittney) attempts to help out, but the situation goes from bad to worse, as the passengers onboard begin to experience several symptoms. While there’s no real explanation for what’s happening on Flight 298, it’s becoming increasingly clear that this is some kind of paranormal phenomenon.

For two of the three acts, everything clicks in Black Box. The tension suffocates. It isn’t only the reality of the situation that’s uneasy to sit with, but it’s also observing how humanity refuses to work together in a time of crisis. It feels real and scary, acting like the missing link between Wes Craven’s Red Eye and M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs.

All this gets undone when the film turns into a cheap knockoff of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (but on a plane!), with horrible special effects that look like they were straight out of 2002’s The Thing video game. Consequently, Black Box crashes into the ocean of irrelevance rather than landing the ending. It’s incredibly frustrating to witness, especially considering everything before the extraterrestrials is very good. The harsh reality is that this movie didn’t have the budget to pull off such an ambitious final act, and it shows onscreen. In this instance, the power of suggestion would have been a better option.

Also, Aura Entertainment isn’t about to escape the accusations that it embraces generative AI in its movies here. Coyotes raised eyebrows in 2025, and a film rep admitted to the Pitch that “there was a touch of machine learning” involved. Similarly, there are a few moments in Black Box that also look highly suspicious to the discerning eye. Regardless of your stance on AI – and if it is or isn’t used – the scenes aren’t exactly enhanced by whatever is done here.

As the star of Black Box, Tom Brittney doesn’t put a foot wrong as Jeremy. He makes you care for his character and the dangerous situation he finds himself in. He’s obviously a talented and committed actor, but he deserves better projects than this. You can’t help but wonder how different his fortunes might have been had he been picked over David Corenswet for the role of Superman (he was one of the top contenders).

Brittney isn’t alone in his performance, as his supporting cast show up as well. However, the jump-the-shark moment sours much of the overall experience. By the end of this, it’s tough to say that anybody escapes this film with their reputations enhanced.

Black Box is the ultimate dilemma. For the majority of the film, it more than punches above its weight and keeps the viewer on the edge of the seat. But that final act is utter nonsense that deserves to be binned. It destroys all the goodwill created from before and turns this into an Asylum-inspired mockbuster.