The Birds (1963)
Posted on September 7, 2005
Filed Under Classics, Slashers
I have to to confess to not knowing a great deal about Alfred Hitchcock, but I’m reliably informed by someone who does that The Birds is probably the nearest thing he made to an actual horror movie. Based on a short story by Daphne Du Maurier (who apparently was none to happy with the finished film), it’s one of those all-conquering, era-defining classics, and I’m not going to waste time echoing the acres of critical praise that the film has accumulated over the years. In a nutshell, it’s brilliant - tense, utterly terrifying and paced so beautifully you could weep. Approaching the film as a horror fan, though, a couple of things stuck out.
Specifically, I was struck by the influence the film seems to have had over some of the later horror classics, particularly Night of the Living Dead. Whilst The Birds doesn’t offer much in the way of social commentary, the nervous, jittery tension once the central characters are holed up in Mitch’s house is evident in Romero’s offering, suggesting both directors realised that the eerie calm between attacks (whether the assailants are zombies or birds) can be just as nerve-shredding as the attacks themselves. The reason behind both films’ events is left unexplained, as Hitchcock and Romero are more interested in the psychological, human manifestations of fear rather than attempting to wrap everything up with a bow.
Bernard Herrmann’s ’soundtrack’ is also epochal. Featuring no conventional instrumentation, the rising concophony of bird noises seems to pre-date the more soundscapes approach of horror composers during the 70s, whose (often synthesised) work opted more abstract atmosphere rather than conventional themes and motifs. He set a trend that continues right up to today with Kenji Kawai’s work on the Japanese Ring movies.
Where Hitchcock differs from other horror directors, however, is the delight he takes in obscuring and deferring the shocks that are to follow. Promoted with the tagline “What is the terrifying secret of The Birds??”, even 1963 audiences must have known that something creepy happens in the film, but the first half hour plays like a bargain-basement Breakfast at Tiffanys. It’s not until over half way through that things really kick off, but the feeling at the start that this rather romantic film could lurch off into something really horrible any moment is really compelling. In itself, the carnage is impressively handled, but the way we’ve been waiting for it all along makes it even sweeter. Unashamedly ghoulish, The Birds is essential.
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