Who couldnt be terrified of birds? With their beady eyes, pointy faces and projectile droppings, the feathery little cretins are the airborne scourge of all mankind. I know it, you know it, and Alfred Hitchcock knew it even way back in 1963.
The Birds shows happening what we all know is bound to really happen at some point beaky assassins, perched outside our schools and our homes, waiting to set upon each and every one of us with their dirty great peckers. Its not just a horror movie. Its reality. The birds are after us. Why else do you think they get up so early in the morning? Its so they can plot our demise while were all still having a kip.
The film takes place in the idyllic fishing town of Bodega Bay, where subtle stalker Melanie (Tippi Hedren) has tracked down a bloke she barely knows (Rod Taylor) to the family home he shares with his chirpy kid sister (Veronica Cartwright) and batty maw (Jessica Tandy). But their attempts at smooching become the least of their problems when a gang of crows, seagulls and sparrows take great exception to the impending formation of a love nest and decide to start roughing up the townsfolk.
Hitchcocks trademark suspense-building perhaps takes a little long to get going in this one, with a good 50 minutes of tepid romantic sub-plot before things really start to kick-off. Despite that, its still a cracking horror flick, with some superb moments one of the most memorable coming when the crows gather at the school gates like common lunch money-stealing bullies while the oblivious kiddies inside belt out some atrocious song or other.
This isn’t Hitchcock’s best, but it still wipes the floor with modern day shock-a-minute fair such as Jeepers Creepers, Wrong Turn or I Know What You Did Last Summer. It might require a bit of patience, but it’s well worth the wait.