Endless thrills are masterfully constructed by Mr. Hitchcock

Rating: 8/10 (3 June 2011)

There is a reason Alfred Hitchcock is nicknamed The Master of Suspense. The Birds is a film that proves this title oh so well. It was released back in 1963, yet 48 years later it is still terrifying. It's the story of Melanie Daniels as she pursues a handsome San Fransico man named Mitch to his hometown of Bodega Bay. Upon her arrival the birds of the town start to act strangely. They begin to randomly attack people very sporadically. The attacks grow increasingly vicious and what started as an attack by one bird here and there becomes massive attacks from gigantic flocks of birds. You could never predict a movie about killer birds to be so terrifying, yet The Birds will prove you wrong as you will never look at a crow the same way again.
This is a movie that you really have to give a chance despite a few kinks in the beginning. Well, I honestly wouldn't call them kinks, just necessary ground that must be covered. The film starts off pretty slow, with a lot of mundane activity. The movie starts out very average and very normal and its easy to get a little bogged down. But after an hour of set-up and creeping suspense building everything pays off. When the film finally kicks in to full gear you realize the necessity of the somewhat dull first half of the film and it is completely worth it.
In a lot of older horror/thriller films I'm able to pick up what is supposed to be scary, but due to my desensitized nature I'm not actually scared by it. The Birds is a completely different story, however. This film is truly terrifying. The technical prowess of this film is astounding and it all works towards a goal of honestly scaring the living hell out of you. Hitchcock directs with such thrilling brilliance that you can't take your eyes off the screen during the harrowing bird attacks. He also employs a sort of blue screen effect to fill the screen with angry birds swirling around in a raging mass. Then of course he adds fake birds for the actors to interact with and, allegedly, real birds.
But where the real thrill comes from is the sound. The spine tingling sounds of angry birds squawking and screeching adds uncanny amounts of thrilling effect to the film. The sound is edited together to achieve maximum chills, and it definitely achieved its goal. The bird attack scenes are just so powerful and so disturbing that you feel like you are in the midst of it all. The film boasts some masterful editing and ingenious direction that creates some of the most suspenseful, as well as strikingly terrifying, moments imaginable.
While the first half of this film is dull yet necessary, the second half does everything possible to make up for a slow start and The Birds ends as a powerful thriller that is incredibly memorable. Alfred Hitchcock is nothing less than a filmmaking genius, and the thrills provided by The Birds during the film's second half proves that all too well. This is a film that sends chills down your spine and will thrill you to the end, especially with one of the most haunting final shots in cinema history.