Flu Bird Horror
Tags: violence

Plot synopsis:
Six teenagers on a chaperoned rehabilitation camping trip find themselves being hunted by mutant giant birds infected with a mysterious virus that changed the birds into deadly predators.
Porky is the first to be injured by the birds. The teens devise a plan to escape, with Johnson proclaiming himself leader. When the teens flee to a military bunker, the birds follow. Eva finds a walkie talkie and gets in contact with park ranger Garrett (Lance Guest), asking for rescue. The group flees the fort as Porky is eaten alive. Garrett and Jacqueline head out to save the teenagers. After a successful escape, Derrick is attacked by a bird but escapes. The group continues north and discovers a house. They check the nearby shed, which is a meat locker.
Derrick's infection begins ravaging his body and Johnson plans to shoot him because he's a liability. Garret and Jacqueline pinpoint the teens' location, but can't reach them because the birds are outside. The group makes a run for the meat shed. Lola and Eva throw out some meat to catch the birds' attention but the birds aren't taking it; they like fresh meat. Derrick hobbles out and offers himself as bait to the birds. They attack and eat him alive. The group finally meets Garrett and Jacqueline and load into the car. The birds attack the car, and Garrett loses control, flipping the car over. Everyone takes shelter under a concrete tunnel. They return to the military bunker, which is leaking gas. They make a plan to blow up the birds using explosives. Johnson wants to be the bait to lure the birds in. As they all flee, Eva pauses, looking back sadly at Johnson, who says he'll make it. The birds block Johnson's escape route and he shoots the explosive, sending the building in flames. The group leaves, remembering Johnson.

Review: So my warning to those of you who have not yet wasted their time, no matter how cheap you may view it, DON'T.This is what the Sci-Fi Channel is becoming known for; brain-dead movies which are not in the least "Sci-Fi".
If you want that, watch some of the Japanese monster films from the 1960s.About the only remarkable quality of this film is how the Sci-Fi Channel manages to produce movies which continue to get WORSE..
"Flu Birds" is a lame and stupid horror movie with a dreadful story, awful characters and terrible acting.
(4) The sacrifice of Johnson killing the two birds (weren't they five?) in the end is absolutely incoherent with the personality of the character.
I was cheering for the Flu Birds to win so the movie would be over.
The actors did over act in what I think was them trying to make the movie kind of camp.
The actors were good looking but I saw pain in their faces like they were being forced to do this film.
Lo, for the genius of humanity reveals itself in Flu Birds, the most awe-inspiring movie ever - before it's over you'll wish you were playing solitaire on your computer, it's just that grabbing.
The only thing scary about Flu Birds is the blatant discontinuity and the idiocy of the characters, all of whom are either exceedingly stupid or just plain assholes.
I cannot believe I spent a dollar at the red-box renting this movie; a mistake that will be sure to haunt me for days to come.
I won't spoil it for you by describing what all the messed up, but believe me, it is extremely noticeable- and I often don't notice these little screw ups the first time I watch a movie.This movie looked like it had the potential to be a mix of a classic and a good movie- The Birds and 28 days later.
Out in the wilderness, rehabilitated teens come across a swarm of strange birds infected with a mutated strain of avian flu and must try to stop the unrelenting attacks from continuing and warn the world of the crises.There was a lot to like from this one.
The fact that the attacks are also fun is great, as this one contains some really good sequences and gets really fun as it gets going in the rather frenetic opening scene where it shows the birds raining down on the confused teens as they flee in panic.
Some of the other bird-attack scenes, including one where they're under attack inside a cramped house and any of the forest attacks are pure fun, with several sequences stuck inside a gas-filled chamber and the attack on the SWAT team.
There's also the way it handles the virus and how it transmits it, managing some fun scenes where the discovery is made, and the race to keep it contained and really feels like something of a crisis, which comes off as a nicely done way of building tension to their attacks, using an impressive-looking hospital victim and them falling under the effects later to generate even more which is a nice plus.
The last positive is that this one works in a nice amount of gore into it as well as the fact that the birds are realistically designed, both drawing from a real dearth of fake and cheaply-done CGI, which is a nice plus as these here are the film's best features.
A film about giant birds that become infected with a deadly virus that turns them into vicious killers, that attacks a group of juveniles who try their best to fend of the birds.If you check out a DVD called flu birds and you read the synopsis, and expect to see a work of art, than its better you stick to mainstream titles because this film is not a work of art, it is a Sci-Fi channel original movie directed by Leigh Scott, known for directing a few films for Asylum, and basically I thought this movie was a lot of fun, I could sit back and just chill while I watched a bunch of people being chased by bird flu carrier pigeons on steroids, and the scene in the beginning with the hunters being attacked by the birds and the one guy runs off instead of trying to shoot the birds, I actually saw a similar thing in a movie about a killer bear, and it got better ratings, plus I can name a few other films that have better ratings that sucked way more than this.Overall, like I said on my comment I posted on Transmorphers, there's different standards between mainstream and low budget, straight to DVD and in this case made for Sci-Fi channel movies..
Where to begin criticising Bird Flu Horror?
The story is another big problem, not only does it have numerous scientific and logical errors, it is predictable and has no real sense of dread, in fact a lot comes across as overly-silly rather than anything else, but it makes the mistake of being dull.
The script is cheesy and doesn't leave the actors much to work with, the birds lack any kind of menace, the direction is lazy and the characters are stereotypical and you don't care for them at all.
The actors try their hardest, but you can tell they are struggling to give any credibility to anything on display in Bird Flu Horror.
Overall, I've seen worse but that is not excusing the fact that to me this movie was more of a horror than any scene it was made up of.
1/10 Bethany Cox. Things I learned from Flu Bird Horror.
Just use fishing as an excuse for anything.If you hear a roar in the woods and your friend is standing about three feet from you, it is prudent to ask, "Did you hear that?" If you are carrying a shotgun when a large bird-like creature swoops down and starts chewing on your pal, show him what friends are really for and run like hell.If you are blind-folded when playing a stupid camp game, make sure you wander deep into the woods and way out of earshot of help before removing your blindfold.If giant flying dinosaur-like creatures attack your camp, run for cover in a nylon tent, especially if you just watched them peck the counselor to death.Delinquents are always more resourceful than armed people and the authorities.Nothing brings people together like a group smoke.Standing by and watching while people you know get eaten by monsters is never fruitful.When on the run from flying, mutated bird monsters, you can always find time to stop and make out in the woods.Apparently beating the hell out of equipment you perceive to be faulty won't fix it after all.Two delinquents with shotguns are more effective at shooting monsters than heavily-armed, highly-trained military personnel.If you are with a group of people, most of whom have guns, be sure not to fire at a monster that is essentially at point blank range in your car window.We will never know where the bird monsters came from.We will never truly know if all of them were destroyed.We will never know if the strain that went air-born at the hospital got out.We will never know what eventually happens to our heroes.But all in all, "people can change.".
Pteriodactl like creatures(..called mutated birds carrying scales), carrying H5N1 viruses that leave those infected with horrifying skin diseases, lead a full assault on juvie kids on a camping trip and their counselor, while also attacking two hunters, killing one while another is rescued by Garrett(Lance Guest;The Last Starfighter), a park ranger who operates within a 200 mile reserve.
Enter a government response team who quarantine the hospital which contains the infected victim and those within it besides Garrett and Hale who hop in his jeep and seek after the teenagers caught somewhere in the middle of the reserve, their counselor dead after being ripped apart by the predatory birds.
Meanwhile, we follow the teens as they combat the birds and each other, hoping to stay alive long enough for Garrett to find them.While the CGI and prosthetic work for the birds is pathetic, there's some pretty potent gore involved in this "animals attack" movie, particularly the icky skin diseases that evolve after those harmed by the birds become infected.
The most gory moments in the movie show victims being torn into by the birds, gaping, bloody flesh wounds as those attacked scream out in horror.
The plot arrangement for the kids being pursued is similar to the killer bear movie, "Grizzly Park", where juveniles, a group of kids who have broken the law, are given a chance to unify in a cause, learning to work together in an environment as a means of reform.
These kids, except maybe the brave, good-hearted, and ultimately resourceful Ava(Sarah Butler), are a loathsome group, particularly Johnson(Jonathon Trent), who is a selfish punk, sacrificing those(..including two who are attacked by the birds, leaving them to die as a means to distract the winged monster while he can get away)that would get in the way of his survival.
I'm not sure this is a ringing endorsement, but Flu Bird Horror(..just the title has me chuckling)could be one of Leigh Scott's better movies!
Flu Bird Horror is typical Sci-fi channel fare I'm sure will be making it's rounds for some time to come..
Charles De Montesquieu once proclaimed - "To become truly great, one has to stand with people, not above them." Unfortunately - although this contributed to the overall greatness of the film - Johnson was unable to fully grasp this seed of knowledge as the film progressed, leading to the quintessential conflict that truly drove the movie home: self vs group interest.
While Johnson tried to control the group and constantly struggled for power, Ava was trying to survive, and she kept the good of the group - with the obvious exemption of Porky - and its survival as the main focus.Now with this knowledge in your arsenal, re-evaluate the movie under this new light.
Once this fundamental pillar of the movie is understood, it even further elevates the rest of the film towards greatness.Hence, it was not a mistake that the teenagers were in fact juveniles, nor was the doctor getting killed a mistake.
While the juveniles self sacrifice for the good of the group, the feds ruthlessly kill...While the script was capable of allowing a classic, it took the fine actors to achieve this feat.
Flu Bird Horror starts as two guy's out deer hunting in some isolated forest are attacked by what look like large reptilian prehistoric birds, one is killed while the other is badly injured.
Back with the fisherman & he is rescued by a local forest ranger who takes him to hospital where the doctor's get very worried as he seems to be infected with a highly contagious & lethal mutant strain of bird flu that could start a worldwide epidemic that could kill billions...Great, just what the world needed.
Issued on DVD in the US under the title of Flu Birds & knew I was in trouble when I saw Nu Image Films produced it & Leigh Scott directed it (just check out their IMDb resumes & see at how many bad horror films they both have credited between them) so at that point I wasn't expecting too much which is just as well because Flu Bird Horror isn't that good although I will admit I have seen worse Sci-Fi Channel 'Creature Features' although that's certainly no sort of recommendation in itself.
The script is pretty poor, the teen character's are all clichéd & annoying, there's virtually zero exposition or plot & the makers don't even try to suggest where the birds came from, what they are, where they have been, why no-one has ever seen them before, why there's only six of them, why they have only just started to attack people or why they carry a mutant strain of bird flu.
Then there's the fact that Flu Bird Horror tends to focus more on the killer disease aspect of it's story like a zero budget rip-off of Outbreak (1995) rather than it's monster birds which would be fine but the disease angle is never tied up, the last time we see the hospital it's quarantined & the deadly mutant bird flu is rampant yet this side of the story is never resolved or gone back to again.
Having said that it moves along at a reasonable pace, it doesn't outstay it's welcome, there are a couple of OK gore scenes & it's relatively entertaining in a crap sort of way if you don't think about the plot too much.Like all Sci-Fi Channel 'Creature Features' Flu Bird Horror has plenty of CGI computer effects & I have to say while they aren't particularly good they are better than most of the Sci-Fi Channel output.
I think the DVD artwork displayed on the IMDb is misleading, this isn't about ordinary birds turning into killers & giving people horrible diseases as there's these prehistoric dinosaur looking creatures the origins of which are never explained in any way whatsoever.The production values are alright, it's fairly well made as far as cheap TV films go.
The acting is alright too, even though the character's are poor the actor's are OK & there one or two good looking girls here which helps.Flu Bird Horror is a fairly routine Sci-Fi Channel 'Creature Feature' that isn't as bad as some of it's type but that ain't saying much, if you know what to expect & can live with the expected &^ obligatory flaws then you may get something out of Flu Bird Horror, all other's should steer well clear..
From the beginning where the hunter with the gun decides to run from the killer birds while they kill his friend,and not shoot at them.
That being said, the special effects reflect that and no further mention of special effects, or lack there of, will be made in this review.Starting with the characters seems like good a place as any.
For example, when first attacked by the giant mutant birds, one character hides under a picnic table while another hides in a tent.
Where did he get that cigarette?) There are other examples of character stupidity (all lighting up cigarettes seconds after their Counselor is mauled by mutant birds, initiating sex in the woods while fleeing the birds, etc.), far too many to list here.Medical mistakes.
I was not expecting a awesome horror movie when i saw the preview for this, but i did like it.I find it funny how the camp leader dies in the first 15 minutes of the movie, i thought he would have a bigger role in it, but i guess not.
The score was pretty good, acting was good, porky was not that good, i was expecting him to surivive at least near the end, i didn't like how they just left him there when there running out of the mine.Pretty good movie over all.Watch it..
"Flu Birds", which aired on TV in 2008 as "Flu Bird Horror", is a low-budget creature-on-the-loose flick about mutant reptilian birds wreaking havoc on a group of juvenile delinquents lost deep in the forest.
The Feds quarantine the hospital that an afflicted hunter is brought to and decide to airstrike the birds, whether the teens are still in the area or not.
Meanwhile a ranger and a doctor desperately search for the kids."Flu Birds" combines the delinquents-on-the-run aspect of "The Warriors" with the flying-reptile angle of "Gargoyles" and the skin-eating disease element of "Cabin Fever".Most reviewers tear the film apart.
One reviewer lambasted the scenes where the birds attack a jeep and helicopter as "inept filmmaking," but I thought they were effectively done.
Also, there's lots of gore for those who care.In addition to this, the film has a good babes-on-the-run factor with Rebekah Kochan as Lola leading the way.
But don't get me wrong, the various women in the film do more than just flee in terror -- they lead, they fight, and a couple are doctors.Also, although there's a decidedly comic-book vibe to the proceedings and a few humorous moments, the filmmakers and cast all take the material seriously and evade the rut of camp (with the possible exception of Porky), even though there are some scenes with dubious acting, which is to be expected in low-budget fare like this.Other pluses include the great opening/ending score, as well as spectacular Romanian locations, particularly during the opening credits; post-production was done in Louisiana.However, it's in the realm of human interest that "Flu Birds" scores its highest points.At it's core the movie addresses the conflict of self interest vs.
In fact, the film starts out with them on retreat from juvenile jail to learn the importance of community and the team concept.Johnson, the lead teen played by Jonathon Trent, is reminiscent of James Remar's Ajax in "The Warriors".
It also attracts the allegiance of the other two main guys in the group, Derrick and Gordon (aka 'Hip Hop'), despite the fact that Johnson is extremely tough on both at times.
In the initial episode the group votes on whether or not to sacrifice the disease-ridden Porky as a diversion for the birds so the rest can escape.
It's an interesting study and reveals the teens' positive growth in the crisis.FINAL WORD: Yes, "Flu Birds" has a laughable title and a ridiculous premise, but don't 95% of these Grade-B creature features?
Regardless, "Flu Birds" entertains and delivers in all the requisite areas as a nature-runs-amok flick, but it's greatness emerges in its study of human nature and self vs.
"Flu Birds", like "Sasquatch Mountain" (which is better), possesses depth even while it successfully entertains and is therefore worthy of your time and respect.The movie runs 89 minutes.GRADE: B