Still scary

Rating: 9/10 (18 October 2004)

Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) visits Bodega Bay to give some birds to Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) a man who flirted with her once. While there her and Mitch begin to fall in love. But also strange things are happening--birds seem to be attacking people for no reason. The attacks escalate and soon Mitch, Melanie and their friends are fighting against birds who attack and kill for no reason...
Some of the dialogue is awkward and it goes on way too long but this is one of Hitchcock's most frightening films. It's beautifully shot and everything looks perfect. The only real debits are the length and Hedren's lousy acting (she was beautiful--but no actress). Taylor gives out a good performance and Jessica Tandy and Suzanne Pleshette are excellent in strong supporting roles. Still, I have trouble watching this movie.
I love horror films and pride myself on being able to sit through anything but I get horrified watching this film. Children are attacked twice--I seriously draw the line at films that have children being hurt. The sequences at the birthday party and (especially) the school (with the infamous jungle gym bit) are just harrowing. Seeing screaming children running in terror as birds peck at them them is not fun. But then it isn't supposed to be. Also Hedren being attacked is even worse. The poor actress had a bunch of birds tied to her by nylon rope--when the birds tried to fly away they couldn't and, naturally, attacked Hedren. They shot that for THREE DAYS until Hedren had a complete nervous breakdown. Knowing this makes the scene even harder to watch. And the discovery of Pleshette's body is hard too. Some people have complained that no reason was given for the birds attacking but seriously--what reason COULD they give?
A strong, frightening film but one of Hitch's best horror films. Decidedly not for children.