When terror takes flight with Hitchcock, you can't go wrong

Rating: 8/10 (5 August 2009)

Every movie fan knows that Alfred Hitchcock is one of the top ten (or even five) geniuses in the history of the movies. I think The Birds is his scariest and most unique picture. Instead of a murder mystery or a psychological thriller, The Birds at its core is essentially a creature feature, and probably one of the most innovative.
The premise is sort of a fantasy. It is a completely hypothetical 'What if' story. A small coastal city in sunny California becomes a hellhole when all the local birds suddenly develop a taste for human flesh. Crows, Gulls, sparrows and even fowl all become predators! The story is told from the point of view of a small family and their guest (Tippy Hedron) she has a crush on ... and decides to surprise him by driving into town and giving his sister a present for her birthday.
I'll give you a perfect example of just how clever The Birds is. Picture if you will, one bird landing and perching very casually on the monkey bars in a playground, then another lands ten seconds later, then another then another. It resembles something out of Sesame Street (I am count Dracula! lets a-count a-birds!) The next thing you know, there are up to fifty birds just casually sitting on the playground. If you saw that in real life, it would amuse you no doubt. But given the context of the film, you'll either be turned away from the screen or biting your nails off.
The visual effects by modern standards would hardly be eye-popping but, considering this was almost fifty years ago, it is a fairly impressive job. There are hand puppets, birds on strings, projector silhouettes, and best of all, the movie features at least a couple hundred real birds. There is an old Hollywood saying, never work with children or animals. Crows and blackbirds are smart fairly easy to train, but seagulls I'm not so sure about, especially for something like the climax. You really need patience to direct a film like this.
After three decades in the movie business, Hitchcock has all the skills required to make The Birds come to life. Like all his films, this one has, and will probably continue stand the test of time.