The Birds (1963)

Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock | 115 minutes | drama, horror, thriller | Actors: Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren, Jessica Tandy, Veronica Cartwright, Suzanne Pleshette, Ethel Griffies, Charles McGraw, Ruth McDevitt, Joe Mantell, Malcolm Atterbury, Karl Swenson

In various horror films, the danger comes from various animal species: sharks, rats, spiders, ‘killer bees’. The horror and tension in this film by the master of suspense, based on a story by Daphne du Maurier, comes from birds. Birds attack residents of Bodega Bay, a coastal town 60 miles north of San Francisco. The prevailing turmoil in the bird world is made immediately apparent by the sight of hundreds of restless seagulls over both San Francisco and Bodega Bay.

Then attacks take place in Bodega Bay in which several people are injured. First, the cause is still being sought in the possible unrest that various people have caused among the birds. Doubt is removed from both the viewer and the main characters after it appears from immediate successive attacks that the birds do indeed work purposefully and without provocation. After this, their possible attacks literally hang over the heads of the main characters and the other villagers as a constant threat, some of which are difficult to convince.

It is only after the local school children are attacked by crows that panic starts to set in among the other villagers. First there are the negative invocations of the ornithologist, who scientifically argues with her bird knowledge the impossibility of combined bird attacks. It is also its function to make it clear that humanity can do nothing against a birdwar (we wouldn t have a chance…how could we possibly hope to fight them). However, when this is followed by another targeted bird attack with several deaths and injuries as a result, no one can avoid the bird attacks. That when scientific explanations and inexplicable situations fail, people tend to resort to faith but also superstition, is apparent from various statements just before and especially after the bird attack. For example, there is the bible-citing drunkard (it’s the end of the world) and there is the lady who is looking for the cause of the attacks with Melanie, who is the newcomer in the village (…who are you, what are you, I think you’re the cause of all this, I think you are evil…evil.. !!).

The disadvantage of this film is that it takes quite a long time before the birds strike. The first attack by a bird takes place after 23 minutes, after which it takes almost half of the film for the first massive bird attack to take place. However, the tension is built up better during this time frame by the unmistakable indications that the birds are only in the phase where they seem to be determining their strategy and Bodega Bay is only in the calm before the storm. At this stage, the village seems to be the testing ground for their initial experimental and exploratory attacks (the gull hitting a window, a single gull’s attack on Melanie), but the oppressive atmosphere quickly sets in when it becomes clear that their massive combined attacks could erupt at any moment. This structure of the film also offers the opportunity to pay ample attention to the main characters, resulting in a better identification with them. When the massive bird attacks actually erupt, this increases the horror because, in addition to the resulting catastrophic scenes, the contrast with the previously depicted pleasant and peaceful village life is emphasized once more.

The tension is also increased because the birds can strike at any given moment, and especially because they do this in a very calculated way. Their first attacks seem incidental and coincidental with several victims still coming off relatively mercifully. Later, however, their attacks appear to take place in a structured manner when hundreds of crows deliberately group themselves next to the school in a subtly menacing manner. In doing so, they do not attack the initially unsuspecting Melanie, but they have clearly set their sights on the children in the school and patiently bid their time to strike. Their almost human intelligence in purposefully choosing their victims and the almost sadistic way in which they subsequently attack and maim their victims magnify the perpetual sinister threat emanating from them from their first massive attack. This is all the more so since they only seem to want the death of their victims. The pattern eventually recognized in their attacks allows one to move between the birds shortly after an attack. However, due to the persistent aggressive reactions of various individual birds, their threat continues to exist even then. The horror and tension eventually peaks when the main characters are not safe even entrenched in their own homes. With much literal pain and effort, the bird attacks are temporarily repelled, but their breakthrough seems inevitable. The only hope of the main characters seems to lie in the unpredictability of the birds, which always remains part of their performance.

One of Hitchcock’s best and most famous horror films. Tension is carefully built up with various indications, and after the first massive bird attack, a constantly oppressive and threatening atmosphere is created due to the incalculability of the birds and their simultaneously calculating and purposeful action. The ruthless performance of the birds themselves is perfectly portrayed and ensures that the viewer prefers to keep a little distance from our feathered friends for the time being.