A movie review written by: Lee Sonogan
1hr57min(1963)Drama, mystery, horror
Mother in Diner: [to Melanie] Why are they doing this? Why are they doing this? They said when you got here the whole thing started. Who are you? What are you? Where did you come from? I think you’re the cause of all of this. I think you’re evil. EVIL!
The first Alfred Hitchcock movie I watched from start to finish. This film is loosely based on the 1952 novelette story by by Daphne du Maurier. The movie is about a series of sudden and unexplained violent bird attacks on the people of Bodega Bay in California. With a budget of $3.3 million it made $11.4 million at the box office. I can totally see why Alfred Hitchcock is known as one of the best directors from this movie. Plus this movie has no music soundtrack and it does not need it.
So much was put into this film that it is worth watching alone. To get the shots perfect with all the birds must have taken hours to film right. The male lead, Rod Taylor claims that the seagulls were fed a mixture of wheat and whiskey. It was the only way to get them to stand around so much. This movie has its own creepy style because of the birds. The sound of reel-to-reel tape being run backward and forward was used to create the frightening bird squawking sounds in the film
For the time this movie came out, it must have been mind-blowing. The only bad thing that lets it down is some of the obvious green screen shots. Other than that this movie had good acting. Fantastic cinematic shots with the animals and more. Perfect thriller elements mixed with drama. The ending gets a bit brutal. I recommend this movie to anyone interested in good old movies and a classic thriller movie with many moments worth remembering.
7.55/10