The Birds

The Birds
This film has been preserved in the National Film Registry in 2016.
Genre: Horror Thriller Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock Produced by: Alfred Hitchcock Written by: Evan Hunter Based on: "The Birds" by Daphne du Maurier Starring: Rod Taylor Jessica Tandy Suzanne Pleshette Tippi Hedren Cinematography: Robert Burks Editing: George Tomasini Production company: Alfred J. Hitchcock Productions Distributed by: Universal Pictures Release date: March 28, 1963 Runtime: 119 minutes Country: United States Language: English Budget: $3.3 million Box office: $11.4 million

The Birds is a 1963 American horror-thriller film directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, loosely based on the 1952 story of the same name by Daphne du Maurier. It focuses on a series of sudden, unexplained violent bird attacks on the people of Bodega Bay, California over the course of a few days.

Summary

A wealthy San Francisco socialite pursues a potential boyfriend to a small Northern California town that slowly takes a turn for the bizarre when birds of all kinds suddenly begin to attack people.

Why It Rocks

1. A very original horror film plotline about a giant group of normal birds planning to kill every human.
2. The film doesn’t only rely on being scary, the film also can get very dramatic, serious and suspenseful at some moments.
3. Much like Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock has shown to have amazing skills as a director.
4. The pacing is brilliant.
5. Many memorable characters, such as the two main characters Mitch Brenner and Melanie Daniels.
6. Each and everyone of the actors give great performances in this movie, mainly as from Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren and Jessica Tandy.
7. The scenes are very unforgettable, such the scenes with with killer brood of birds go on an aggressive rampage as they aggressively attack the townsfolk.
8. Melanie and Mitch share some amazing chemistry with each other.
9. Alfred Hitchcock, the director of the film, has a clever background cameo during the scene when Melanie walks into the pet store.
10. The cinematography is pretty decent for the 1960s.
11. Bernard Herrmann gives another impressive and well-fitting musical score.
12. The scenes where the birds attack people are scary.

The Only Bad Quality

1. Some of the special effects didn‘t age well.

Reception

The film currently holds a Rotten Tomatoes approval rating of 96% based on 52 critic reviews with an average rating of 8.2/10, with the consensus: "Proving once again that build-up is the key to suspense, Hitchcock successfully turned birds into some of the most terrifying villains in horror history."

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