The Birds - film review

Arguably one of Alfred Hithcock’s best pieces of works, The Birds is still as scary and horrifying as it was over 45 years ago. As one of the best ‘creature features,’ ever made, The Birds is certainly up there with the likes of Jaws or King Kong. Featuring the plotline of a wealthy young socialite named Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) who falls in love with a business man named Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor), we see Melanie find her way to the film’s backdrop, Bodega bay. It is here that all hell breaks loose, in the form of thousands of what appear to be murderous birds.

What perhaps makes this film so enjoyable, is that Alfred doesn’t make it clear that we are watching a horror film into about halfway through. This gives us time to enjoy the characters, and only builds up to what we can only expect is coming. As the worldwide ‘Master of Suspense,’ Alfred produces the perfect correlation between dramatic music and well-adjusted scenes to install the fear in the viewers of the film. In a way that only he can, by the end of the film, he makes everyday harmless animals, birds, into something as scary as perhaps a raging murderer with a chainsaw or a zombie apocalypse. The film has everything you would expect from that of a horror film; a complication, a terrifying enemy and numerous innocent victims.

Although the effects don’t compare to today’s blockbusters, they are still cleverly made and directed to give maximum effect. From quick glances between a flock of crows and screaming faces of children, to overhead views of the overall scene, it helps the viewer to imagine the feel of the situation we are watching. This helps to realize just how much cinematography has come along, and specifically that of horror. It is enjoyable to see how it appears that throughout different phases of history, different crazes of ‘horror’ capture the world. The Birds, made in 1963, joins films such as Psycho, Night of the Living Dead and Rosemary’s Baby. All of which iconic in their own right, with their own rightful place in the history of film.


Though the film is enjoyable, it is easy to forget that it was created many years ago. To the modern day film-viewer it may appear to be boring or badly made, but it is those rough, jagged edges of this film that make it so enjoyable. In a technique well before it’s time, the film ends with us making our own decision of what happens to the vital characters. It is this aspect of a film that can make it live on forever, and which seems to be in nearly every other film that comes out today. The actual performance of the cast is enjoyable; Tippi Hedren rumoured to of been chosen for the part due to Alfred Hitcock himself watching her in a commercial, displays a good balance of emotional and dramatic acting, as well as bringing a touch of glamour to the mundane seaside town. Rob Taylor, acting slightly as the alpha heroine also delivers a good performance and professionalism.

The film overall is nowadays undeniably iconic, overall I’d rate it 4/5 stars. It is Alfred Hitchcock’s clever and legendary work that makes the film so memorable and legendary; and only adding to his brilliance, it is with a tiny essence of fear that I’m currently looking out my window to a creaking magpie…