Alfred Hitchcock : The birds

 119 min - Horror | Thriller

Director:

Alfred Hitchcock

Writers:

Daphne Du Maurier (story), Evan Hunter (screenplay)

Stars:

Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren and Suzanne Pleshette

At first we believe that this film is going to consist of a romance. This slowly turns into a thriller with a slight bit of romance. It turns into a crazy thriller about birds that have had enough with the humans for treating them wrongly. For example caging them up and killing and eating them. As the film progresses the birds increase in numbers and become a lot more vicious because of this.

We usually think of the villain in a thriller one person that has a grudge against somebody. This time it is nature that has had enough of being treated wrong and wants its revenge. So it’s not one enemy starting all of the events.

Hitchcock tries to make a thriller where the enemy is all around you and can get you wherever you’re hiding. So for example if you are hiding in a house the birds can still get through. This gives the thriller more of a jump scare feel. This is because wherever you go there could be a bird waiting around the corner ready to attack you.

Thrillers are usually full out action thought the whole film, but what Alfred Hitchcock has tried to do is give a sense of normal and calmness is the film. So one minute you could have people being attacked by birds the next they are calm and relaxed talking about how to fix the issue.

The issue of the villain in the birds is that it is not one well equipped enemy. It is many of the same enemy when brought together can be very dangerous. Also with the resourceful hero there wasn’t one because first we didn’t really have a specific hero. Also the film ended with the threat still being there.

One of the main features used in the birds is the use of a red herring. This is when we at first thought that it was going to be a romance but we were wrong and it turned into a thriller. Or romantic thriller.

Also we have a scene where we see that the children are singing but it contrasts to the evil nature that is waiting outside for the children to leave. Also when we see the high angle shot outside the café it is like the eye of god looking down saying he is not going to fix the mess that they have created.

There was a great amount of endings that was considered to being used in the thriller. The one that they did use though, showed that the threat of the birds was still there and if not treating to birds correctly they could again come back for revenge, because we have seen what the birds are already capable of, and if even more of them are grouped together it could be an even bigger threat to the community.