Was that movie really scary at a time? The acting was horrible. I would say the little girl was the best actor.

I would hate to see if a movie like The Hills Had Eyes
came out in the 60s. They would probably crap their pants.

Horrible acting was standard in early-60s movies lol. And yes, the definition of "scary" was a lot different then. The shower scene in Psycho was considered to be over-the-top horror.

Wow. I remember when daddy saw The Hills Have Eyes, he said there was a trailer/rape scene and some guy stepped out the theater door and threw up.

That must have been a difficult movie to watch for some, but not daddy. He was a police officer, so he saw scary stuff for real.

The Birds was sort of silly to me. Perhaps if they had a more convincing color of blood and better acting, it may be a good spooky halloween movie, because otherwise I liked the story. But what do I know, I don't like scary movies.

I saw it recently on TV, and I thought it was very silly, and certainly not scary. And, I kept feeling, if they are scared of the birds, why are they walking down the street? Why don't they just stay inside? And, he has his arm around her, like that is going to protect her?

The only part I kind of liked was the very beginning, which seemed to imply that the birds were upset because the woman had the two birds in a cage. The cage was much too small for those birds.

I can't really remember whether I found it scary back in the day. I know I didn't see it at a movie house, only on TV. In a movie house, it might have been more scary.

Friday night, back in the day, there was a show called "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and one called "The Twilight Zone." I used to watch them with my mom, then I wouldn't be able to get to sleep because they were so creepy. But, I couldn't go to my mom for comfort, because then she wouldn't let me watch them any more.

My mom was British, so she loved Alfred Hitchcock.

I noticed the cage. If you look closely you can see the lovebirds have plucked some of their feathers.

Possibly the worst part was when the main lady walked up into the attic. Why? She knew there would be birds up there! Then she gets a couple of scrapes and that causes her to fall unconscious. So silly. She doesn't even fight back. She just let's them peck her.

When I was a kid, we all thought that the lovebirds had somehow infected the wild birds and made them go crazy. But reading up on it a few months ago, the actual intention was that there was no real reason for it that any human would understand. The wild birds had simply decided to turn on humanity. The original planned ending was for them to arrive in San Francisco and see the Golden Gate Bridge covered with birds. There was no escape anywhere. But the budget wouldn't allow them to do that scene effectively, so instead Hitchcock just had it end at a random moment.

Something else I learned a few months ago is that it's based on a short story by Daphne du Maurier: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birds_%28story%29 The book isn't easy to find but I managed to get hold of it. The basic idea of birds turning against humanity with no escape is the same but otherwise the characters are completely different (and a lot less annoying lol). It takes place in a rural area of England with a farmhand trying to protect his family from bird attacks, and is a more effective horror story than the Hitchcock version IMO.

BTW while reading about the movie, it was reported that some semi-famous person said they thought the birds attacked the children in the schoolyard because of the annoying song.

Ooh!! Score!!! I found the short story online: https://northviewulrich.files.wordpress ... l-text.pdf

After pondering further about what Dianne said, I found this image since I missed the beginning of the movie:

Is that a lilac crowned amazon in a round cage back there?

Seeing as I was puzzled about why the birds were unexplainably attacking people and since it was never explained in the movie whatsoever, I did some detective work and happened to find this:



Hooray! Finally an explanation and essential accompaniment to the bizarre film. So, technically, yes, Dianne, you are partially right, the birds were upset about being caged, but Alfred Hitchcock delves in deeper.

Excellent digging Tielfan and Blukeet! I enjoyed the story and the clip.
I think the story may have had some relationship to fears during the cold war. The wireless being down reminds me of movies about the Cold War, where a few souls remain alive after an atomic war.

I remember watching the Birds as a kid and thinking it was scary and I thought it was revenge for small cages. We just watched it a few months ago on Netflix. It's pretty corny but most cult films are like that.