The Birds

This weekend I watched the Hitchcock film ‘The Birds’. I have been interested in Hitchcock for quite a while, and the effect his work has had on many other filmmakers. A couple of weeks ago I took ‘The Birds’ out of the library at the academy but I never got around to watching it. However when I went home this weekend my Dad got out the Hitchcock box set that he received at Christmas and let me pick out one of the DVD’s to watch. I had heard good things about ‘The Birds’ and my mum said that when she watched the film she found it really scary.

I really enjoyed the film, Hitchcock’s psychological thrillers are always very high quality and this one was no exception. He builds anticipation and creates suspense wonderfully. I love how his films are all about subtlety, a look or gesture can often tell the story or portray a message more effectively than dialogue. It is so interesting how Hitchcock manages to make something that would not be ordinarily scary, such as birds, into something terrifying. This is done simply by the use of camera angles, music and diegetic sound. Some of the special effects used when the birds are shown to be attacking people look a little outdated and unrealistic. However it got me thinking, would the film be better if it was remade now? Obviously we have more technology now that would provide us with the ability to create 3D animation to show the birds attacking. However I think this may actually spoil the look of the film and diminish its appeal. Part of the charm of the film is how the birds are made to appear scary, but done within a creative fashion. If special effects were used it would mean that less creativity would be required to produce the film.

One of the best scenes within the film is achieved so simply, it involves crows sitting on a climbing frame outside of a school. Every few seconds when the camera goes back to the climbing frame the number of birds seem to have multiplied, until the playground is covered in birds. All of these crows make up such a daunting image, each bird appears so sinister and the group of them together appears terrifying.

What I think makes the movie scary is that the fear within the film is not an unrealistic one that exists only in our imaginations. Everyone knows that monsters or vampires are not real, however birds are obviously very real, and they are EVERYWHERE! After watching the film I found myself looking around warily when I saw a bird, and flinching whenever a pigeon, or god forbid, a seagull flies over my head. So clearly this film has achieved its objective of scaring people. Yet again I am impressed with another one of Hitchcock’s films, and as the film ended I found myself wanting to watch more of the boxset straight away as I enjoyed the movie so much. However I will defiantly be watching out for those scary birds when I am walking around Glasgow tomorrow.