Alfred Hitchcock's undeniably outstanding killer animal horror masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (9 May 2006)

I finally bought a copy of Alfred Hitchcock's undeniably outstanding killer animal fright film masterpiece on DVD and rewatched it. Although I've viewed it many times, "The Birds" still managed to creep me out and make my hair stand on end as I saw it yet again. I think this alone serves a sterling testament to just what a remarkably strong and scary movie "The Birds" truly is. Hitchcock's extremely meticulous and thus thoroughly believable evocation of a pedestrian everyday mundane world populated by ordinary, yet engaging and interesting true-to-life characters going about their usual business that's violently disrupted by the savage, shocking and inexplicable hostile attacks by every kind of bird qualifies as his major artistic triumph here. There's a conviction and plausibility evident in this film which makes it quite powerful and frightening in comparable measure. Moreover, the performances by the top-rate cast are uniformly outstanding (Tippi Hedren in her delightful film debut, the ever-rugged and appealing Rod Taylor, Jessica Tandy and a very young Veronica Cartwright are all splendid), the inspired use of natural sound and conspicuous absence of a standard score is brilliantly effective, the bird attack sequences are stunningly harrowing and horrifying (the climactic night long siege on the house is an absolute tour-de-force of nerve-wracking terror and tension), and the amazingly convincing special effects remain impressive to this very day (Albert Whitlock's extraordinary matte paintings are simply spectacular). Fantastic chillingly ambiguous ending, too. If you haven't seen this one in some time I strongly advise that you watch it again. I'm absolutely certain it will still get under your skin as well.