Intense and Obscurely Frightening

Rating: 7/10 (23 September 2014)

The master of suspense directed one of the most strangely terrifying films ever made. It revolves around random bird attacks on a bay near San Francisco when a woman decides to spend a few days there. The reason or motive behind these attacks is unknown but the birds show absolutely no remorse.
Hitchcock was always great at giving us incredible female leads, and Tippi Hedren's 'Melanie Daniels was no different. You don't even find out a lot about her character, only that she is determined to bring the two love birds to Mitch, a recently stranger turned friend. The film alludes to the fact that the attacks only begin once she arrives on site. But even then we don't truly know the motive behind it all. I didn't find the supporting performances to be all that great, in fact i found the mothers to be a bit revolting at times. The children were also at times obnoxious.
The first hour of the film is very calm and reminiscent of a Hitchcock romance but when the attacks begin, they don't let up. The scene at the schoolhouse is iconic and is impossible to remove from your mind. The way Hitchcock shows Melanie's point of view all the way to the hundreds of crows just waiting to attack was marvelous. In what started as a soothing first hour, ends with a terrifying last 50 minutes. Much like every fantasy like story, most people don't believe the attacks are real until they eventually witness the downtown explosions with several people dying. It's then we see one of our favorite characters die and basically all hell breaks loose.
Hitchcock did a brilliant job directing the film but i can't quite grip my head around his choice for an ambiguous ending. Usually you take this time to offer either a twist or a huge reveal that alters the viewing experience and pieces the puzzle together. Instead we are left with no answers. Overall, there are several classic moments but the sum of it's parts didn't pay off as much as i would have liked.
+Strong Hitchcock female lead
+Frightening built up horror
+Iconic school scene
-Weak supporting characters
-Ending
7.6/10