The Birds (1963)
Parental Guidance Recommended for Younger viewers.
Violence
| Director: | Alfred Hitchcock |
| Actors: | Tippi Hedren, Rod Taylor, Suzanne Pleshette, Jessica Tandy, Veronica Cartwright |
Nothing equals The Birds for sheer terror when Alfred Hitchcock unleashes his foul friends in one of his most shocking and memorable masterpieces. As beautiful blonde Melanie Daniels ('Tippi' Hedren) rolls into Bodega Bay in pursuit of eligible bachelor Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor), she is inexplicably attacked by a seagull. Suddenly thousands of birds are flocking into town, preying on school-children and residents in a terrifying series of attacks. Soon Mitch and Melanie are fighting for their lives against a deadly force that can't be explained and can't be stopped in one of Hollywood's most horrific films of nature gone berserk.
| Run Time: | 115mins |
|---|---|
| File Size (Approx): | 1 GB |
The Birds
by Jess Lomas, 17/04/2012 4:07:00 PM
The horror of Alfred Hitchcock’s films is often labelled ‘tame’ compared to the movies that now grace our cinema screens. Yet Hitchcock’s 1963 horror suspense classic The Birds has terrified me from the moment I first saw it at a sleepover party at the tender age of ten. To this day a low-flying avian creature or a pack of seagulls lurking nearby can cause heart palpitations and elicit shrieks of terror from this Hitchcock loving, bird-fearing girl. Based on a story by Daphne du Maurier, The Birds is set in Bodega Bay, California. When Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) mistakes the wealthy socialite Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) for a salesperson in a pet shop, she finds his address and plans to deliver a pair of lovebirds as a practical joke. Over the following days, the town is held captive b...
The horror of Alfred Hitchcock’s films is often labelled ‘tame’ compared to the movies that now grace our cinema screens. Yet Hitchcock’s 1963 horror suspense classic The Birds has terrified me from the moment I first saw it at a sleepover party at the tender age of ten. To this day a low-flying avian creature or a pack of seagulls lurking nearby can cause heart palpitations and elicit shrieks of terror from this Hitchcock loving, bird-fearing girl.
Based on a story by Daphne du Maurier, The Birds is set in Bodega Bay, California. When Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) mistakes the wealthy socialite Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) for a salesperson in a pet shop, she finds his address and plans to deliver a pair of lovebirds as a practical joke. Over the following days, the town is held captive by unexplained bird attacks, seeing Melanie thrust together with Mitch, his mother Lydia (Jessica Tandy), his younger sister Cathy (Veronica Cartwright), and her teacher (Suzanne Pleshette). The movie quickly becomes a tale of survival begging one to question who will make it to the closing credits, and whether birds may be a bigger threat to humanity than we gave them credit for?
While the special effects may extract a chuckle or a groan from a more discriminating audience, it’s Hitchcock’s trademark use of suspense and the unseen as the real horror that cements The Birds as a fright night classic. That said; the image of Lydia finding her friend with his eyes pecked out is enough to torment those, like myself, who consider themselves light-weight horror viewers. The picture in fact earned only one Academy Award nomination for Best Effects, Special Visual Effects, though it couldn’t beat out Cleopatra for the statue.
Equally as impressive as Hitchcock’s romance-horror pacing is his decision to deliver us an ambiguous ending; something that more often than not feels lazy in modern features seems to work perfectly here. Hitchcock’s films allowed him to play with convention and challenge audiences to do the same, and The Birds is a perfect example of the master at work.
3.5/5
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