The Birds
The Birds
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This film has been preserved in the National Film Registry in 2016.
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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
- A very original horror film plotline about a giant group of normal birds planning to kill every human.
- The film doesn’t only rely on being scary, the film also can get very dramatic, serious and suspenseful at some moments.
- Much like Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock has shown to have amazing skills as a director.
- The pacing is brilliant.
- Many memorable characters, such as the two main characters Mitch Brenner and Melanie Daniels.
- Each and everyone of the actors give great performances in this movie, mainly as from Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren and Jessica Tandy.
- 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.
- Melanie and Mitch share some amazing chemistry with each other.
- Alfred Hitchcock, the director of the film, has a clever background cameo during the scene when Melanie walks into the pet store.
- The cinematography is pretty decent for the 1960s.
- Bernard Herrmann gives another impressive and well-fitting musical score.
- The scenes where the birds attack people are scary.
The Only Bad Quality
- 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."