Genuinely Terrifying!

Rating: 9/10 (4 April 2010)

Consider for a second some of the incredible films Alfred Hitchcock has directed; Rear Window, Psycho, Vertigo to name just a few. It is therefore saying something that in my opinion 'The Birds' is the directors greatest accomplishment.
The film, based in California, focuses on a mass outbreak of bird attacks against the residents of Bodega Bay with its main characters the macho Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) and a rich 'it girl' of the time, Melanie Daneils (Tippi Hedren). Its perhaps fair to say that if you aren't a fan of leaving questions unanswered in a film this may not be for you. We are never presented with any answers as to just why these birds are choosing to seemingly wage war with humanity, yet in a way this is what makes the film so haunting.
As a fan of the horror genre too many films tend to fall in to the trap of displaying frequent over the top gore as a way of providing the shock factor. Whilst 'The Birds' does provide genuine gore, in one scene Brenner's mother travels to a friends farmhouse to find the birds have laid siege to the house and pecked the mans eyes clean out, it is the eerie silences when the birds are gathering and the excellent POV shots that help build suspense, meaning when the shocks do come they are genuinely terrifying!Indeed when Melanie is waiting outside the school and the birds are gathering in silence on the climbing friend behind or when she climbs up to the attic with nothing but torch light.
Another thing modern day horror tends to fall into the trap of his underestimating the sheer terror of pure silence. There is no music in 'The Birds' meaning when they do attack all we hear is the shrill sound of the bird calls and the flapping of their wings. Believe me, its a haunting sound! You also cannot underestimate the role the characters play in this film, they are real people who you genuinely care what happens to them. Taylor and Hedren are both excellent but it is arguably Mitch's mother, Jessica Tandy who is the cream of the crop as a character petrified of being left alone. Note her haunting reactions as the camera provides to sudden close up shots after she discovers her friends eyes have been picked out! It may be some 47 years since the release of 'The Birds' yet you would have a very tough time to find many films that can be as genuinely haunting. It is a Hitchcock must see!