Quick recap: A young socialite goes out of her way to play a practical joke on a lawyer. And also something about murderous birds but that’s like the C plot so it’s not really important.

Fun (?) fact: A group of crows is called a murder. 

This one is just being a jerk

My thoughts: Welcome to Horrorfest 2014! I made the decision last year to only review the horror movies on my list during the month of October and it was loads of fun. I plan on doing the same this year, the only difference being that I’m going to actually try and scare myself this time around. Seeing as how almost everything frightens me, it shouldn’t be too difficult a task.

First up on my list is The Birds, which didn’t seem all that scary to me when I put it on the Netflix list. I want to be scared, mind you, not traumatized. The beginning of the movie seemed to justify my choice because it was all very silly. Now, it might just be that humor was different back then, but I didn’t find the ‘joke’ of Melanie buying the lovebirds, driving out to Bodega Bay and sneaking into Mitch’s house to leave the gift for the little sister all that funny. Psychotic perhaps. OH MY GOD. Maybe Melanie is really psychotic and goes on a murderous rampage after Mitch fails to get her lame joke. In a moment of clarity she realizes the horror of what she has done and blames it on the birds. It even explains Annie’s death because it was really done out of jealousy, not lousy crows pecking her eyes out. Then again, this movie could’ve literally been about birds. Probably that.

Ultimately, the question comes down to if I was scared or not and the answer is….kind of? I mean, the scene where the birds attacked the children was suspenseful but also kind of funny because it was obvious the birds weren’t real. Also because birds aren’t all that terrifying. Now if this was a pack (?) of man eating spiders, I’d totally get it. With that being said, the final scene when the birds descend on the house was scarier than I expected. The horror comes from hearing all the awful noises and having nowhere to hide, not necessarily that they were birds. Also,the scene were Melanie hears sounds upstairs and goes to investigate made me nervous and I was reminded of it as I walked up my own stairs that night. Hitchcock is the master of suspense after all,and in the end does a fine job making something ordinary turn seem utterly terrifying. Kind of.

Final review: 4/5. Maybe not ‘horror’ in the traditional sense but I enjoyed myself, nonetheless.

Up next: Horrorfest continues…..