A Psychoanalytical Thriller

Rating: Null/10 (19 December 2001)

Complex interpersonal relationships with their possessiveness, jealousies, insecurities and anxieties are played out against the backdrop of spine-chilling massed attacks by birds in a small picturesque town near San Francisco. Why the birds attack without any provocation is neither made clear nor is any hypothesis proffered. It is this open-ended quality that elevates the film from being a mere bloodcurdling thriller at the superficial level to a subtler plane with many possibilities of psychoanalytical interpretations. The sub-textual reading of the film offers many hours of pleasure to the armchair psychologist. All the four principal characters, though outwardly simple, seem weighed down by some not so pleasant pasts, which they are reluctantly suppressing. The birds perhaps symbolise the cathartic release of their bottled up emotions. The almost tranquil anti-climax of the film makes you wonder whether the birds were just demons of the mind that have been expurgated. The present of caged lovebirds, which seemingly trigger off the inexplicably bizarre chain of events, are also central to the sub-text, and can be infused with several layers of semantics. In a most poignant final sequence, the little girl Cathy, who has been traumatised by the recurrent bird attacks requests her family to take along the caged birds with them as they flee to safety. So does the cage stand for security rather than the oft-repeated cliché of bondage?  an interesting speculation! In a strikingly refreshing departure from modern day films of animal terror, there is no attempt to avenge the attack, which further lends weight to the feeling that the birds are a chimera.	Even if Freudian analysis is not your up of tea, this is a fine film to be enjoyed for its sheer craftsmanship. Notice that the film is totally devoid of background score, debunking the notion that music heightens suspense. The long silent pauses are actually deafening. The sequences of bird strikes are amazingly well done. The camerawork is graceful  particularly noteworthy is the sequence in which Melanie stealthily arrives by boat to deliver the caged birds. A film out of the top drawer of Hitchcock.