The Birds (1963)

 

Hitchcock was a friggin' genius when it came to filmmaking. Reports show he wasn't that nice of a man in real life, but goth darnit, he sure knew how to create a perfect sense of suspense and foreboding. 'The Birds' is an excellent example of this. Who else would make a rather bizarre and perhaps even silly idea like "birds start attacking people for no real reason" and turn it into one of the most memorable thrillers ever?

Exactly.

The story kicks off when wealthy socialite Melanie Daniels wants to buy a bird for her aunt. She is spotted by Mitch Brenner, who knows who she is, yet he wants to play a prank on her. This intrigues Melanie, and she goes above and beyond to find out who Mitch is and where he lives. She even buys lovebirds as a gift for his little sister. It turns out Mitch is in a place called Bodega Bay and Melanie heads over there. She succeeds in dropping off the birds at his place without anyone noticing, but when a gull attacks her from out of nowhere, Mitch is ready to help her. 

But it doesn't stop there, oh no.

See, Mitch's young sister likes Melanie, but the mom clearly does not. Add in Annie, a former lover of Mitch who clearly still has the hots for him and the plot thickens even more. And little by little, more and more bird attacks happen, culminating in a few of the most tense moments ever put to film concerning birds. I am not even joking. Even if some of the special effects are dated by our standards of today, the creepily slow build, the sound design and downright peculiar nature of events are sure to chill the bones. Heck, some of the townsfolk even blame all this on Melanie. 

Yes, there have been numerous theories about how this is an option, or that the overly obsessive mother calls this upon everyone who wants to take away her son, but let's just stick to "nature is fed up with humanity" for now. It's as good an explanation as any, and they even address it in the film. 

So yes, the outline is silly. But it's here that Hitchcock shows his mastery. See, Melanie isn't really a nice person, but she evolves because Mitch is a swell guy. Heck, he's played by Rod Taylor, how could he not be a swell guy? She takes a legitimate liking to him (even if their meeting is quite forced) and then changes for the better. You spend quite a lot of time with the characters and they do have lengthy talking scenes. It might feel as though they slow down the film, but they actually give them more depth and make us feel a lot more sympathetic to their plight. This is of course an excellent way of making the tense moments even more so.

And boy, does this one deliver on the tense-scale. It all starts off innocuously enough, but every new mishap makes the feeling of dread grow and it just doesn't let up. The absolute turning point is the buildup to the school attack by a murder of crows. 

Ha, possibly the coolest name ever for a flock of birds. There's also a parliament of rooks, by the way. Black birds get the coolest denominations.

The way it is shot, is that slowly but surely, more and more crows land silently on a playground, until Melanie finally notices them and everything is literally covered in crows. 

Trust me, it is excellent.

The full frontal attack by gulls on the town of Bodega Bay is more action oriented, but still great. So is the siege to the Brenner's house, where finally Melanie becomes traumatized after a particularly vicious attack. 

It all ends rather ominously and nothing is resolved, but that is for the best, as this film would have been just a footnote with any kind of resolution. Now we are left to ponder if anyone will make it out alive, and if the world will ever be the same again. 

Yes, this is a masterclass once again from the man who ate suspense for breakfast. It is probably triply horrifying if you're afraid of birds, but you won't leave the house and look at a sparrow or pigeon the same way ever again. 

Or chickens. Poultry can be scary as all heck.