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The Birds (1963) - Full Reaction (Patreon)

Published:
2022-09-29 12:00:06
Imported:
2026-06
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Carly joins me as we kick off watching "scary" movies this month... but scary to Carly is Speed and The Firm, so we'll see how she does! I don't want to give too much of the reaction away so you'll have to watch to find out what we though about it, but one word I would use to describe it is... bizarre? Hope you enjoy! 

(this is a schedule post in hopes that the video is done processing by the time you see this - if it's still not working I'll have to re-upload it)

Direct link in case the above player doesn't work. 

Find your own copy to follow a long with. 

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[Full Reaction] The Birds (1963)

Comments

Steve H

You are to imagine what will happen. You can see Alred Hitchcock in every movie he makes: In this movie, Alfred can be seen waking a pair of dogs early on.

HercEl

Many have theories as to why the birds attacked, Hitchcock explained that one thing that inspired the movie was a real event in which birds did attack a town diving into cars and attacking people, but it wouldn't be until a few decades later that the cause was a toxin found in algae that contaminated the bird's food supply, if you watch the movie again you'll notice the love birds don't go crazy or try to attack, the first attack we hear about was a week before the events of the movie takes place with seagulls going after a boat, the chickens in the area though we never see or hear about them attacking we do know they too are acting strange, the only birds not going crazy are the love birds and those in the pet shop we saw in the beginning. So far it seems just those birds in that area are affected and like the event that partially inspired it it could be a toxin that's affecting the birds given that no actual supernatural incidents occurred also and most likely it all could just be a message left up to the audience to interpret however they want, there's a "sequel" that came out decades later, but no answers there almost a poor copy of the original there's also a similar movie that came out in 2008, but with no birds, it also didn't do well, generated more laughs and memes than scares.

Lana Gorgeous

A little trivia, the main lead female actor Tippi Hedren is the mother of female actor Melanie Griffith.

Eddie Perkins

"We don't get an ending?" There are a lot of good movies out there without endings. In real life, a lot of people go to sleep, and that's their ending; it's not exciting, but when it's my time, I'll take it. The Alfred Hitchcock movie Lifeboat (1944) is one of those movies that people don't talk about, but I think it is worth watching. IMDb 7.6, Rotten Tomatoes 90% and Popcornmeter 87%

John A
>>109169579

Hitchcock is Leaving the pet shop with two of his own Sealyham terriers, Geoffrey and Stanley, as Tippi Hedren enters.

John A
>>125737761

I had met Tippi Hedren twice, very pleasant lady. When she autographs her name, she always draws birds around her name.

Christopher Smith

Download is working for me, so nailed it on the timing of the post. For a taste of the "So bad, it's good" movie flavor, there is a movie folks enjoy called "Birdemic: Shock and Terror". It is good for a laugh, especially after watching "The Birds".

PapaXan

Tweet tweet...AAAAAAAHHHHHH....

Brian McGovern
>>92570769

I have mentioned this as movie to watch for “Schlocktober” Movies so bad, they’re good?

Jason Fulbright

Brought to you by Coppertone! Carly might need to try a CBD infused sunscreen to get through the October "scary but not too scary' season.

Jason Fulbright

Oh, and I noticed yesterday that Ghost is on the unseen list. That should be your palate cleanser this month when the scary starts to get "too scary". Road House is on there as well. Not for October but another good 80's Swayze vehicle with the great Sam Elliott.

John Drake

I think "The Fog" should definitely be on the list - its more of a spooky ghost story, but great fun

Jason Fulbright

There are some decent anthology movies that might be good October fare like Twilight Zone: The Movie, Creep Show. 1 & 2, and Cat's Eye. TZ especially since Cassie would love the flying through a storm combo! I don't remember her ever talking about any anthology movies before and there is some good Stephen King lore there as well.

Björn Karlsson

Is she afraid of trolls? 😄 They actually excists in Norway - Trollhunter from 2010 😉😉

David Martin

The girl who plays Cathy Brenner is Lambert from "Alien".

Tim Raths

Hitchcock's original ending was going to be that when they return to San Francisco that the Golden Gate Bridge was going to be covered with birds but it would have too difficult to shoot so they decided to give it an ambiguous ending instead.

Scott Macaulay

Or as my dad used to say, "Da Boids"

Grinznmore

They wanted the release of caged birds. Possibly inspired by the notion of a Bird in a Guilded Cage. Many stories about what if powerless creatures were empowered? ie. Planet of the Apes, Them,...Quentin Tarantino likes to rewrite history and empower historically weak characters. Turn things on it's head, so to speak. In Greek mythology, Prometheus had a bad experience with peckers.

Tim Raths

Melanie's intro to this film was a nod to a commercial that Tippi Hedren appeared in, in the early 1960's where someone whistles at her and she turns around, looks and then smiles. That commercial can actually be found on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TWvsKfkVaw

Anthony Perez

Ok a scary sparrow attack in a living room was made a little better by watching Carlys face when she eats hot spicy popcorn. Not to mention Cassies "crap now I need chocolate"

Imperiums Campaign Setting

Ive wondered if the movie A Ghost Story would be a ok movie for Carly. Id love to see a reaction to it just because i like the movie, but i fully realize that its storytelling is not like one normally sees in reaction vids.

Mark Harrell

Guessing the Saw movies are a hard NO for Carly?

Grinznmore

Freight Night and Tremors are good not too scary flicks.

Variable38

I dont know if Hitchcock had a reason for the birds to suddenly attack, but my theory is that Earth was in the tail of the comet Rhea-M.

R F.

This movie somehow manages to occupy space in the mind of people who watch it. It isn’t terrifying, its not loaded with gore, and it isn’t spiritual or realistic…but somehow it pops into your mind over and over.

Celeste McAllister

The schoolhouse still exists it's located in Guerneville,California...The girl is Tippi Hedron mother of Melanie Griffith,grandmother of Dakota Johnson..no resolution maybe Hitchcock wanted people to leave the theater looking up in the air,frightened of birds,playing on phobia.

Anthony Perez

It was fun seeing this after at least 30 years since last time. Especially watching it with you'se two. I did not like the portrayal of the mother and the Daniels character as so helpless when the attack in the houses happened. This movie does get into your head though...the innocence of quiet peaceful days can be full of unknown danger. About fifteen minutes from end of reaction I had to pause to let my dog into yard...walk out there...it is 1030am...sunny but cold...absolutely quiet outside, suburban housing. Completely empty of people...but still heard crows and sparrows making noise and creeped me out.

Steve Holton
>>92581625

Strangely that can be authentic in a small town. Blue eyes are a recessive gene, so if two blue eyed people marry, they only have recessive blue genes, so they can only have blue eyed children. My brother Michael has blue eyes and so does his wife. And they have 3 blue eyed children.

Dryfesands

Really great reaction. It *is* a strange film but it stays with you. As for what Hitchcock was thinking . . . no idea . . . but . . . . The original short story by Daphne Du Maurier is set in South West England just after the end of the Second World War. The characters are far less glamorous than Melanie, Mitch and Co. Poor rural workers in a coastal community of fishermen and farmers trying to make ends meet in a very austere Britain bankrupt after the war. Again, there is no obvious reason for the Birds to start attacking humanity beyond them having enough of us and our abuse of the natural world. In the book the main character, Nat, who is a disabled veteran, works out that the attacks seem to be linked to the tides, but by the time he does so it's too late for him to get the word out to anyone else. It ends in a similarly open way but with the radio implying that the situation for the British Isles is much much worse and that the Birds are winning everywhere. What's it all about? Well the short story might be about Britain and their experience during the war. Sudden shattering aerial attacks from nowhere, government's failing to be able to protect their people, and the effect it has on society . . . but it feels there's much more to it than that . . . As Cassie said, it's very dark.

Just Plain Bob

Such a perfect example of modern sensibilities clashing with the artistic vision of the filmmakers of years past. It used to be much more common for screenwriters and directors to make their films ambiguous. It gives the audience something to think about and discuss afterwards. But today's audiences want everything spelled out for them. Films such as this and Night of the Living Dead would NEVER succeed today, because they don't detail the WHY of things - they leave it to the audience to decide for themselves. The only thing "missing" from these more ambiguous stories is the modern audience's imagination. It's a real shame that this kind of filmmaking has died out.

David Freese
>>92579544

There is talk of maybe her trying to do Saw 1 and avoiding the rest. Saw 1 is not a complete horror schlock. It's actually a social look at what you'd do to survive.

Cole Jennett

Carly would be able to handle Tremors. Prom Prom!😊

MikeLL
>>92577238

I always get Veronica Cartwright confused with her older sister, Angela, who was in The Sound of Music and Lost in Space in the sixties.

MikeLL
>>92582977

I've only read a summary of the short story, but apparently it is just as ambiguous as this movie, and even has London overrun by attacks. I would expect, knowing this came out in the early sixties, that Hitchcock was playing with some Cold War fears, generalizing it as man vs nature, getting inspiration from the Du Maurier story. Early sixties audiences would have appreciated fearing destruction "coming from the sky", like a nuclear war.

Dustin Nelson

Tremors is pretty manageable. I want A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984) this season personally

Jay

This is nowhere near my favourite Hitchcock film but I will say this, I've always loved the ending, I think it's great. Ambiguity is not a bad thing. As for why the birds are attacking? I don't think it really matters but the trailer offers up a decent theory. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCxR7dlavwg (basically, the birds have had enough of our shit)

Tonio

Actually I think in 1960 around the time this movie was made this type of situation actually happens somewhere which helped Hitchcock develop the idea. It wasn't until years after the movie came out that the real situation where Birds were attacking people was found to be due to poisonous algae I think

MikeLL

I have always thought that on Patreon, any reactor's Patreon, a Hitchcock poll would be won by Psycho and/or The Birds. Now that we have The Birds out of the way, I think any Hitchcock poll here would be won by North by Northwest and/or Vertigo, one would win and the other would be the runner-up. So, ta-daa, there's no need for a Hitchcock poll anymore, or one just to decide the order of watch. We just need to watch Vertigo and North by Northwest next. After an appropriate amount of time, of course. And how about that Hitchcock? In 1954 he made Rear Window and Dial M for Murder. In 1955, To Catch A Thief and The Trouble With Harry. In 1956, The Man Who Knew Too Much and The Wrong Man. Then he really got rolling. Vertigo 1958, North by Northwest 1959, Psycho 1960, and The Birds 1963. I don't think any director, even Spielberg, ever put together such a string of excellent movies.

Paul Rathke

Anyone want to buy my convertible?

Tim Raths
>>92592779

I think in one of her livestreams she was toying with the idea of watching Friday the 13th or Scream. I don’t know if she’s actually going to do it though.

Prof. Writhms

This was my first time seeing “The Birds” in its entirety. It came on TV when I was a kid back in the 80s and I remembered trying to watch it and I thought it was corny. I gave up after the scene where the kids are attacked at the birthday party. I guess it was stuck in my head, since I was a stupid kid, that this movie was "corny". But wow, was I wrong! I guess I’m mature enough to appreciate all of Hitchcock’s genius now? This was definitely a lesson in film editing. Each cut builds suspense, especially the crow/playground shots. I should have known better and gave “The Birds” another watch long before now. I just never gave it any thought. My take is the birds attacked after Melanie brought the caged birds into the town, provoking some sort of feathered rebellion? It was a strange story but I really enjoyed it, thanks to this channel! ✌

Robin Craft

Carly - 2022 "Death by Birds" 😂 This isn't one of Hitchcock's top tier films but despite its flaws it's one of my favorites. If its on, I'm watching it no matter how many times I've seen it. I mentioned before Suzanne Pleshette (Annie) giving off the young Elizabeth Taylor vibes. RIP. Ambiguity is not necessarily a bad thing. Great start to the "scary but not too scary" movies.

Art of Free Speech

Okay, so a few things... The reason the birds attacked is they were tired of being caged by humans and treated poorly. This was according to Hitchcock. The reason you didn't get a "why" is Hitchcock believed the things you couldn't explain were scarier than the things you could. You never got an explanation about why the shark was attacking in Jaws, either.

Just Plain Bob
>>92593593

You are correct, it was algae, although they did not discover that algae was the cause until several years later.

Prof. Writhms
>>92599466

Hooper (the shark expert in "Jaws") said the Great White shark was not normally in those waters and was attracted by all the activity of the people swimming in the area and saw them as a main food source. He explained, this is very rare for sharks to do, as he labeled this particular shark a "rogue".

Alex Villarreal

PSYCHO and THE BIRDS make for an interesting double feature. One portrays the banality of being killed in a shower in a random motel (among other themes in the movie); and the latter is about how indifferent "Nature" is to mankind, or maybe it's about how "Nature" is starting to take mankind's indifference personally now. Interesting themes. Hitchcock's subconscious must have been an interesting, weird place.

Stick Figure Studios

Not one of Hitchcock's best, but still effective nonetheless (and without a music score you might notice). Personally, I love this movie. I remember watching it on TV as a kid and despite the rather dated special effects was pretty scared. The attack on their home is a marvelous set piece because it's all done inside the house with only the sound effects of the unknown number of birds outside and your imagination doing the rest. Spielberg employed a similar tactic years later in CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND. As for the ending, I dig it. I find it a very haunting final image with them driving off into an uncertain world where humanity might just be done for because the birds suddenly decided for whatever reason (deliberately unexplained in the film) to attack us. A few notes on the actors. The gorgeous Melanie was played by Tippi Hedren, real life mother to Melanie Griffith (WORKING GIRL). She also appeared in Hitchcock's MARNIE. Her bright blue eyes, green outfit and blonde hair make for a stunning onscreen visual (Hitchcock had a thing for blondes). Mitch was played by Rod Taylor who also appeared in the original TIME MACHINE movie that was later remade with Guy Pearce. The mother was Jessica Tandy whom I knew in my childhood from such films as BATTERIES NOT INCLUDED, COCOON and DRIVING MISS DAISY (for which she won her Oscar). The little girl Cathy is none other than Veronica Cartwright who you would know as Lambert in ALIEN. She became one of the great scream queens of the movies. Nobody plays freaked out and cries/screams better than her. Funny anecdote: one night my wife wanted to show me the film THE CHILDREN'S HOUR starring Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine. I saw Veronica Cartwright's name in the opening credits and said, "I'll bet she screams at some point in this movie." Sure enough, later she became so distraught that she screamed and actually blew out the mic. My wife was impressed that I predicted that. She has also appeared in such films as THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK and the 1970s version of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, but I first knew her as the mother in Disney's FLIGHT OF THE NAVIGATOR (where she conspicuously doesn't scream). Finally, Annie is played by the lovely Suzanne Pleshette who was an icon of the 60s and 70s. She appeared in multiple Disney movies like THE UGLY DACHSHUND, BLACKBEARD'S GHOST and THE SHAGGY D.A. She also received several Emmy nominations for her performance in the classic TV series THE BOB NEWHART SHOW. Enjoyed that reaction. Thank you, ladies. :-)

Gábor Árki

This was my first time watching this movie and so far this has been my least favorite Hitchcock movie (seen Rear Window, Vertigo, North by Northwest, and Psycho). Not a bad movie by any means, but I'm with Cassie and Carly: it had a very weird, bizarre, uneasy feel to it. Although I'm quite certain it was all intentional. But unlike these other movies I mentioned I don't think I'm ever going to re-watch this on my own. As for theories, I'm on the side it all happened due to the caged lovebirds. :D After seeing this reaction I'm still standing by my previous suggestions. I think The Mummy (1999) would be below Carly's threshold to be actually entertaining. It is mainly Indy-style adventure movie but with some mildly scary and gory parts, based on a classic Universal horror movie from the '30s. My other suggestion hitting a bit higher threshold is The Village (2004) which is an under-appreciated movie in my opinion. Not horrific or gory, but a well written and executed suspense thriller.

Dryfesands

Do we consider the original "Wicker Man" from 1973 manageable? It isn't exactly graphic but it *is* deeply unsettling and had a shattering climax. It would be an interesting watch.

Prof. Writhms

Being it was my first time watching it from beginning to end, my only disappointment was the lack of a music score during the opening credits. I was eager, thinking "Oh, what awesome opening title music does Hitchcock have in store this time?!" And it was just bird sound effects. [Womp womp....] 😒

Jacob Colson

Hey let's just be glad she watched The Birds and not Birdemic: Shock and Terror. Lmao

Jay
>>92604943

My all time favourite movie, director's cut to be specific. It's as much a musical and detective story as it is a horror movie. So weird and wonderful, I love that film so much! Christopher Lee always said it was his best film (he was Saruman in LOTR, Cassie).

Stick Figure Studios
>>92605589

Your comment is an excellent illustration of how approaching a film with certain specific expectations (rather than being completely open to whatever experience that the filmmakers intend to create for the audience) can lead to disappointment. Personally, I love the opening credits with the creepy bird sound effects (a perfect mood-setter for the film that is about to follow) and the total lack of a music score throughout. I think the eerie silence often makes it incredibly tense.

MikeLL
>>92602643

It used to bother me for many years that there wasn't any explanation in the movie, and I used to downgrade the movie for that reason. Then I came to accept that the no explanation solution was well suited to the mystery of the film, the original story offered no explanation either, and any explanation offered would not have sufficed. As I said earlier, the 'unknown terror from the skies" fit the early sixties very well. As you said, I remember the special effects looking very strange to me when I was younger, but as evidenced by Cassie and Carly's reaction, the movie still holds up today. That Hitchcock really knew what he was doing.

Grad

The Japanese version of The Ring, Ringu (1998), is a good introduction to Japanese horror. Unsettling without being nasty. Sadly, the American remake has more votes on popcornrequests.com! If you are to watch The Ring, I would recommend watching the original Japanese version first. Edit: Also, if you were to watch Ringu, I would recommend not looking into it too much beforehand. The images that shows up in a Google search contains spoilers.

Brian Lowery

My take was always that Lydia was a witch, and the birds were here familiars. The birds seemed to focus on anyone that was a rival to her for Mitch’s attention. And, while Melanie seemed to get the brunt of their wrath , the birds seemed to ignore Mitch and Kathy. Fun fact: Tippi Hedren’s character is named Melanie. Her only child was actress Melanie Griffith.

Björn Von Knorring

I believe the reason this was scary when it came out was because the medium (scary movies) was kinda new so there wasn't the same need to get resolutions or answers. I had the same reaction as you did; I wanted to know WHY but I guess the audience then didn't need it because they were busy being scared. So Carly has that going for her; she is braver than movie-goers 60 years ago:-)

Pepe M

The Birds is one of those movies that breaks the rules in it's time (i love that kind of movies). Hitchcock was a director who took the viewer to the limit. He always brought something new, surprised the public. His visual narrative capacity was out of the ordinary. He was a "different" director. At a time when movies were sold by their actors, he was another star: A Hitchcock's movie was a box office incentive. He uses to leave the narrative confort zone and explore new paths. There are some great things in The birds. The threat of something as innocent and without danger as birds (in Shyamalan's The Happening, conceptually identical to The birds, is the same way of how nature turns against Men for no apparent reason). No soundtrack. Bernard Hermann, advisor in this movie, gave him the idea of just birds sounds. That birds sounds were created with two methods: the Echoflex that created effects of reverberation and delay and a Trautonio (predecessor of synthetizers) . The great scene of the house when that threat external attack (unseen), there is no dialogue either, only strong "soundtrack" of birds. This "silent movie" sequence is cinema in essence. Silence is one more narrative element in The Birds. And again Shyamalan in Signs final assault, it is the same type of scene. Carpenter made Assault on precint 13 about the same idea. How many directors inspired with this? In Dawn of the dead, Zack Snyder uses a camera shot identical to that of the gas station burning from the air. Another amazing scene (among the many this movie has) is when Tippi Hedren is waiting outside the school and the crows are coming at her back. She discoveres it by following one on its way through the air in the same way, for example as Roland Emmerich in Independence Day (a movie Cassie reacted to) show as the way that Will Smith following a helicopter in the air discovers the mothership. With Hitchcock many generations of directors learned cinema . I heard many theories about the ending, that Hitchcock wanted a final shot while they arrived in San Francisco, with the Golden Gate full of thousand of birds There was a storyboard with that. Other coments that what director wanted was to leave the whole subject in suspense and without explanation and something more focused on the characters (all the movies ended with the label The End but not this one). It's an open ending and maybe the terror continues.... But i recognize that for me it has always been an apocalyptic movie (the final shot reminds me one in Spielberg's War of the worlds, a director visually very influenced by Hitchcock). As curiosity Hitchcock said that the most inteligent were the crows and the most agressive birds of thousands trained that he used were the seagulls. He tied the trained birds to the children and hand puppets in running away from school on a treadmille and rear projection. By the way, that school had fame to be haunted between the film crew. And tied birds too Tippi Hedren in the room attack scene. She was hospitalized for a few days due to exhaustion. Hitchcock, with his particular sense of humor, gave a gift that her daughter, Melanie Griffith, a doll just like Tippi in a coffin. And a special chapter when talking about the strengh of the main female character, who takes the iniciative at all times like Eva Marie Saint in North by Northwest, she set the pace in relationship (in Hitchcock's era of obssesion with blondes). For visual effects, Hitchcock wanted to innovate using a special camera that Disney had, used yellow sodium vapor lamp.. The Birds is a classic and one of the great movies in history. The film is 60 years old and still incredibly modern.

Jason Dolan

Horror movies I think maybe Carly could handle: NOPE THE LOST BOYS WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS SHAUN OF THE DEAD 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE GREMLINS SLEEPY HOLLOW LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS DEATH BECOMES HER TREMORS THE MUMMY (TOM CRUISE)

LMrcs

I think the ambiguous ending was part of the suspense in terms of "do they make it out?" "who knows?". Also from what I understood, part of the terror/horror aspect is that at any moment a very minute mundane part of our lives can turn on us for no explanation that we could possibly comprehend. Awesome reaction as always!

Ben Livingstone

In the category of scary movies, one related to this is "Roar"--which I'm not recommending for Cassie! It stars Tippi Hedren and her family, including her daughter Melanie Griffith. It was filmed as a comedy/animal rights film, but ended up being a horror because they filmed in a house with full-grown lions and tigers, with elephants outside. Most of the cast and crew were mauled at some point.

Just Plain Bob
>>92628593

A wonderful oddity of a film. Noel Marshall began his own nature preserve, filled with lions and tigers, Oh My! He and his blended family (including Tippi Hedren and her daughter Melanie Griffith) lived on this preserve for years, with lions and tigers roaming freely throughout the property. At some point he got the bright idea of turning their real life into a movie. During filming almost every member of production was injured, some seriously. Hedren had her ankle broken by an elephant and Griffith was viciously mauled and suffered severe head trauma. The film itself is mostly only interesting with these facts in mind, since there's not much story to it.

Anthony Perez

another thing that struck me was the attitudes about gender reactions. All the women, for the most part with the possible exception of the schoolteacher, were passive and did nothing to help during attacks'. Even at the birthday party, the girls were helped by adults while all the boys were left to fend for themselves. Mitch has to do all the thinking for all the women in his group. I can't see Sigourney Weaver screaming helplessly while birds attack.

Rainbow Dash

If you want to know more about Alfred Hitchcocks thinking process, you should definitely watch the movie "Hitchcock" starring Anthony Hopkins as the man himself. "All men are potential murderers, and with good reason" - Hitchcock

David Freese
>>92644002

Got to remember that the movie is from the late 50s early 60s. Back then that was the attitude the was prevalent. It just shows how society has evolved.

Shehab Dawoud
>>92612968

You suggest Ringu while another guy suggested The Grudge... Y'all want her to pass out on video?

Michael Threapleton
>>92620510

Great points Pepe. It also reminded me of the 'death by parakeets' scene in Roger Vadim's Barbarella (1968). The birds in that scene (probably not parakeets) are remarkably similar to the caged lovebirds in the Hitchcock classic. In the dystopian world of Tau-Ceti, even the "innocent" birds from Bodega Bay have become deadly killers.

David Patterson

In 1994, Showtime aired 'The Birds II: Land's End'. It's basically the same movie on the East coast and in more modern times. I watched it expecting it to ruin the original by having a happy ending, but it actually was a decent, however unnecessary sequel.

Steve Colletti
>>92580169

I was going to recommend TREMORS (great film), but wasn't sure that a 'monster movie' counted.

Steve Colletti
>>92598276

If you watched the classic films on regular TV, they are destroyed by the format. They used to show (cut) CASABLANCA to fit in 90 minutes with commercials. That is a lot of cutting on a film really doesn't have a lot of fat on it. I thought it was a massively overrated film for years until I saw it unedited and without commercials. That's the one that stuck with me. I'm sure there are others.

Steve Colletti

A lot of different opinions on scary (and not too scary) films. So is BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA a scary movie?

Steve Colletti
>>92624888

SLEEPY HOLLOW is a great choice! And I've been pushing TREMORS for a long time. (i sent Cassie the disc)

Patrick Flanagan

Every explanation being offered in the comments for why these events are happening are just guesses. It's left deliberately unexplained. The randomness of it all is part and parcel of the horror.

Zulfadhli Abd Latif

She's done seeing the shining, she needs to be upgraded 😁

Larry Darrell

Sometime's there just isn't a Why? I like that. It's makes the film scarier, to think that at any moment, a flock of birds might fly out of the sky, and attack you. There probably is a reason, but you don't know it. That means, Birds could one day, out of the blue, viciously attack you, for one out of a million reasons. It could happen, right? It is estimated, that there are 40 to 60 birds per person on the planet. So, they got us outnumbered already. Think about how much you take birds for granted. They're every where outside all day, every day, amongst us, and we pay them no mind. A cousin of mine had a bird feeder for hummingbirds in her yard, and a Blue Jay flew in and took it over. It fought all the hummingbirds away. My cousin got a BB Gun and shot the Blue Jay. As she was picking it up to throw it in the trash, three more Blue Jays flew over right near here and began loudly screeching. She dropped the dead bird, and calmly walked into the house, and stayed there until her husband came home. Things like that will stay with you. Because you never know, which day is going to be the day... that the Birds... do more... than just... Screech!! Happy October 1st Everyone

Steve Colletti

Car trivia - Melanie's car is a 1954 Aston Martin DB2/4 Drophead Coupe.

BRT
>>92579050

It's a good one and doesn't get enough recognition.

BRT

Did you catch Mr Hitchcock in this one? In many of his films, including "Psycho" and "Rear Window" he makes a brief easter egg appearance. This film is loosely based on a VERY short story by Daphne du Maurier, with completely different characters and storyline. I'm a great fan of the film but it's one of those that is better in the rewatching. I've seen it many times since i was a little kid in the 1970s. Over the years I've come to appreciate the very interesting characters ( and actors) and am more interested in their intersecting stories, with the birds and the the chaos as a backdrop for the character interaction. That whole opening sequence with Melanie and Mitch and all the complexity she goes through to get those love birds into position. So much outrageous and WRY humor, and the timing of just when she is meeting back up with him at the boat dock and the viewer is anticipating their exchange, BANG, the gull hits Melanie and sets into motion an entirely different dimension to the plot. Hitch uses the birds again and again that way throughout the film and it's really genius film making. Additionally, it's so beautifully shot and visually appealing, presenting a wonderful window into the time period. I can definitely understand how some people may feel shortchanged by the lack of an explanation or tidy ending, but that is how the short story ends too, with the allusion to it was only just beginning and was getting worse. As others have pointed out, I think it really makes for a film that remains interesting over time. I'd love to see a reaction to another Hitchcock film based on a full du Maurier novel, "Rebecca"(1940), which isn't really scary at all but a very creepy gothic mystery with also involves interesting complex characters in a developing romance.

Julian San

By the time Annie Hayworth’s body was found and the girls stated how dark it got, I couldn’t help but laugh and look to the beginning and ask, Do you remember when this started out as a Rom-Com?? 🤣

Gary W

After watching this movie, I bet you'll never go to a park to feed pigeons and look at them the same way ever again.

Scott Macaulay

I love when you watch the Alfurd Hitchcock movies! The little girl grew up to be in Lambert in Alien!

China Andronicus

There was a more definitive ending written but never filmed that went slightly further than this one. The birds nearly got into the car but they escaped and it showed them seeing some sign of freedom ahead with no birds around. The actress who played Cathy is recognizable from Alien as the character Lambert. This and most other Hitchcock films also have their costumes done by the incomparable Edith Head, to this day the most honored costume designer with 35 nominations and 8 wins. She's the one parodied by Edna Mode in Pixar's the Incredibles.

Aaron Hawkins

As amazing and as unsettling as the ending and last shot of this film is, the original alternate ending would've been even more so. The main characters were going to make it to San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge was going to be covered with birds. It was planned and they made storyboards of it but the special effects limitations of the time made it an impossible shot to accomplish. Still, that ending and image would've been so awesome and chilling.

Miles E Coburn
>>92944184

No, Veronica Cartwright played Lambert in "Alien". Angela Cartwright (Cathy) was on "Make Room for Daddy" and Penny on "Lost in Space" (TV show).

Michael Jung

It strikes me that Melanie, who displays zero respect for boundaries at the beginning of the film (she tells lies, sneaks around, breaks into Mitch's house to drop off the lovebirds etc.) represents a humanity that has no respect for the boundaries set by nature. In the end, the birds punish the humans and Melanie in particular who still has no respect for boundaries (she follows the sound of flapping wings and enters a room filled with birds, knowing full well that the birds are killers). Melanie may not have caused the bird attacks, but she is a living example of how some people never learn.