Dead Birds (2004)

There are worse things than dying

Starring: Henry Thomas, Nicki Aycox, Isaiah Washington, Michael Shannon, Patrick Fugit, Mark Boone Jr., Muse Watson, Harris Mann, Melanie Abramoff, Donna Biscoe, Brian Bremer, Russ Comegys, David Dwyer, Michael Faella, Steve Green

Director: Alex Turner

Running Time: 87 minutes

US MPAA rating: R
UK BBFC rating: 15
Horror, Thriller

On DVD

On DVD

It is 1863, during America's Civil War, and after carrying out a bloody bank robbery in the Alabama town of Fairhope, five criminals decide to hide out overnight in an isolated old farm. The strange creature that charges out of the cornrows at them as they approach the property turns out to be only the first of many monstrous apparitions that they will encounter, and soon tensions within the group arising from guilt, jealousy, greed and racism find their echo in the terrible history of the house, as its past horrors return to play themselves out anew.

There is something eerily familiar about 'Dead Birds'. Apart from deploying just about every cliché of the haunted house subgenre, 'Dead Birds' also evokes motifs from a broad range of specific films - the necromantic book and demonic revenants of 'The Evil Dead', the haunted well and ladderless barnloft of

DVD Extras: Aspect ratio 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen; optional subtitles (Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovene, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish); director's commentary; second commentary by director, writer and cast; 'Making of Dead Birds' featurette (27min); 'Showboat & Boonie' featurette; five deleted scenes, with optional commentary (7min).
Version reviewed: Dead Birds (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)
Extras: 9 out of 10

It's Got: An exploding head, demonic children, something in the well, strange bestial creatures amongst the corn - and plenty of loose ends (including the title) which, though a sign of poor writing in most other films, here just add to the mood of uncanniness.

It Needs: Perhaps a little more characterisation - and the repetition in the flashbacks might have been edited out.

Alternatives: Children of the Corn, Jeepers Creepers 2, 'The Evil Dead', The Ring, The Amityville Horror, Cold Mountain

Summary: In this prequel to all American haunted house movies, the past is just like the future. Overall Score: 7 out of 10