Customer Reviews

Dead Birds

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(35)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

The black heart of horror no longer beats in Hollywood, as none of the major players even try to come up with original, let alone good, horror films these days. All is not lost, however, as indie filmmakers have risen up to carry the dark banner. Do not look askance at all of today's low-budget, direct-to-video horror offerings, for only here can you find new horror films of substance and genuine creepiness. You would do well to start right here with Dead Birds, as director Alex Turner has given us one gem of a horror movie.

Things start off with a bang - well, several bangs, really - as a group of no-good outlaws rob an Alabama bank in 1863. These guys are free and easy with their trigger fingers and knives, leaving a real mess of blood and gore in their wake. It's bad enough that they slaughter innocent civilians, but they go too far when they also kill a group of Rebel soldiers trying to deposit two bags of Confederate gold. Thus it was established that, whatever happened to them, these guys would get no sympathy from me. I was actually a tad concerned about the gore in this early scene, though - it was effective but a tad gratuitous (does a head really explode in such a complete manner from one well-placed shot?), and I worried that the filmmaker was trying a little too hard to play up to us gorehounds. Such concerns quickly fell by the wayside, as the rest of the film is masterfully done.

The gang (which includes a woman as well as a black man) rides off in search of a certain plantation house the leader learned about from a fellow wounded soldier, planning to bed there overnight before heading off to Mexico with their new riches. Personally, I would have taken one look at that deserted plantation house and kept on riding, but the gang moves on in for the night. They find respite from an approaching thunderstorm, but there will be no rest for the weary tonight. It's pretty easy to see that this house just isn't right; heck, some unclassifiable beast runs out of the cornstalks at them before they even get close to the front door. One by one, these hardened outlaws are given glimpses of the dark history of the place - it starts out with the usual kind of stuff (e.g., giggles, voices, creaks, etc.) but the cinematography makes it work like gangbusters. Eventually, ghostly images appear and, more often that not, morph into frightening demonic creatures. The CGI is rather Grudge-ish, yet it is very effective. Of course, the key to good horror is not the ghostly manifestations, it is the atmosphere and level of suspense that precede and accompany them - and this is where Dead Birds truly excels. If you're like me and watching this movie alone, odds are you will find yourself advising the characters on screen not to do this or to stay away from that or to simply run like the dickens (or words to that effect) on more than one occasion. The characters, I can assure you, will not heed your advice, even as things get spookier and more dangerous as the night wears on.

Some of the movie descriptions that I saw led me to believe the characters all turn on one another - this is misleading. Naturally, any group of outlaws hovering over two big bags of gold are going to be suspicious of one another (and there is also a touch of racial distrust for the black man thrown into the mix), but you won't see these characters act on their suspicions and become the agents of their own destruction. The threat here is external and very, very real.

Aside from a somewhat shaky start, the actors really grow into their respective roles, and that makes the horrors all the more effective. You may recognize Henry Thomas, the fellow playing the leader of the gang - I knew he looked familiar, but I didn't recognize him as young Elliott from E.T. until I discovered that piece of information in another review. The female character, Nicki Aycox, looks a lot like Lisa Marie Presley, but that's neither here nor there. I must admit, though, that the film's title, while catchy, is a bit of a puzzler, as only one oblique reference is made to dead birds during the film.

Is the movie scary? Not necessarily. It is, however, thoroughly creepy, and I much prefer a creepy movie over a scary one. A good scare can be exhilarating, but it's over and done with in a hurry. Creepiness, in contrast, works its way into your bones, where it is distilled into something that stays with you long after the original source of the creep factor is gone. That, if you ask me, is what horror is really all about - and, I am glad to say, that is also what Dead Birds is all about. That is exactly why I love this movie.

I LOVE horror movies and can usually watch them without hiding my eyes but this one...brrrrrr!!! SUCH a sense of dread about it! And the wonderful setting in an old Alabama plantation. AND the absolutely horrific creatures! I think this is one of the most truly original horror movies I've ever seen, directed by first-time feature film director Alex Turner and written by Simon Barrett with the unique setting of the Civil War South. The cast is great, led by Henry Thomas ("All the Pretty Horses", "ET"), Patrick Fugit ("Almost Famous"), Isaiah Washington ("Ghost Ship") and Nicki Aycox ("Jeepers Creepers II") and the production design by Leslie Keel ("May") is wonderful although I believe that, like the remake of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", most of the movie was filmed in the actual plantation. Which makes the atmosphere all the more realistic. The cinematography is amazing as well, done by Steve Yedlin ("May", "Toolbox Murders" [2005]) in a sort of sepia tone that brings the era to life. The plot is fairly simple - a band of Confederate deserters bloodily rob a bank of it's gold and hide out in a plantation that one of the men had been told about by a former war comrade. A storm traps them there and then the "fun" begins as they each start suspecting the other of things that are happening around them (sinister noises, disappearances, ghastly visions, etc.). Claustrophobic, creepy, horrifying images, gore - it's all there for horror fans. HIGHLY recommended!! And VERY disturbing - DON'T look under your bed after watching this! OR go playing in a cornfield!

Bank robbers stumble upon an abandoned house and decide to rest there for the night. However, they soon find out that they are not alone in the house.

When I initially purchased this movie, I saw a couple of good reviews about it. I really expected it to be a low-budget cheesy B movie, but was pleasantly surprised at how good it was as a movie itself. Keep in mind that it IS a low budget flick with campy special effects, but you barely notice it. The circular ending was very well done. I actually applauded at the end....which is unusual for me. I would highly recommend this movie.

Picture it: Alabama, 1863. A band of southerners robs a bank and high-tails it for Mexico, with an escape route that calls for a pit stop in an abandoned farmhouse. The six fugitives hole up for the night in the empty home, which turns out to be a critically bad idea. Starring Henry Thomas as William, the gang's ringleader.

Once this movie had been underway for a few minutes, a rather shocking something occurred to both me and my significant other almost simultaneously: these guys sounded southern. And by "southern" I don't mean, "I took twenty hours of voice coach classes per week in order to nail down a y'all that would make anyone south of the Mason-Dixon line shoot French fries through his or her respective nose with laughter, because I'm a Damn Yankee and I'm not fooling anyone."

What I mean is, they talked like the people who live around here do. Seriously. I was floored. You almost never hear a southern character sound like an honest-to-God southerner in the movies. Imported actors don't sound like they're from Georgia; they sound like they've had their consonants beaten out of them with a tray of cornbread.

Now my boyfriend and I knew, when we flashed that fateful Blockbuster card, that this was a low-budget movie; but we had no idea it was so low budget that the director was forced to cast actual southerners.

At any rate. So you've got six ex-Confederate banditos on the run, having recently emptied a bank in a bloody and profitable fashion. Their goal is to make it south of the border, but on the way they stop for the night at an abandoned farmhouse -- a farmhouse which, unlike some stories of this ilk -- has not been arbitrarily, mysteriously abandoned for no good reason whatsoever. Our robbers do not merely stumble across it in a streak of suicidally bad luck. No, the house and property were inherited by a friend and fellow soldier of William's, but this friend died in battle before he could claim the property.

Voila! Instant hide-out. Just add criminals.

Granted, the house has a few genre strikes against it -- but in 1863 our protagonists might not be aware of them yet, so I'm prepared to forgive them. For one thing, the only way to reach the house is through a huge cornfield; and if horror has taught us nothing, it is that corn kills. It's the crop of the damned. Just ask Stephen King, or M. Night Shyamalan. "Grow soybeans instead," that's what they'll tell you.

Another bad sign of impending doom: the house features a cellar door that flat refuses to open. For those of you who may not watch a lot of horror, the "locked cellar door" is the mystery equivalent of "the gun over the mantle." By the end of that movie, some poor schmuck is going to open that door and go down there alone. Again, though, Dark Birds bucks the trend. Rather than letting the group's lone female skip downstairs in a flimsy nightie, the writers eventually send an intelligent, good-sized, well-armed black man who could shoot a fly off a crap wagon at twenty paces. And no, he doesn't die down there.

In fact, one of the more charming aspects of this film was the way that none of the characters did too much stupid -- "Hey, what's that out there in the corn? I know it's dark, and it's raining, and there are skinless fanged dog-beasts roaming the rows, but heck, I'm going to go check it out." This does happen a little bit as a matter of narrative necessity, but it goes down towards the end of the film and with fairly good reason. For once, we've got a horror movie that features southerners behaving like reasonable people -- not as redneck chainsaw fodder or homicidal six-toed inbreds. Will wonders never cease?

I do admit that there were a few loose ends, and that the ending left me a bit confused -- even after I'd thought about it enough to declare that I "got it." But overall I really liked this thing. It was genuinely suspenseful for all of its reliance on cliche, and the atmosphere was damn near perfect. The characters relate in a believable fashion, both to each other and to the encroaching threat, and the special effects were surprisingly good and sparingly used. I'm not easily impressed by indie horror, and I'm not afraid to make fun of it either -- but this one is worthy of a watch.

Good stuff.

I enjoyed this flick, great suspence, scares and effects. Will definatly watch again and pick up the DVD.

If you love gore and high end special effects you might be disappointed with this film, however there are still many opportunities to see some things that are somewhat disturbing.

I really like psychological thrillers, and would consider this one, because they rely more on the viewers imagination rather than supply them with the images.

This film begins with civil war renegades who rob confederates of their gold, in turn killing those who were at the bank. Then, they go to hide out in a place that was recommended to them. It happens to be an old farm house, in the middle of nowhere, presumed abandoned, but only to the naked eye. Something is very wrong with the house.

Overall, especially for it being low budget, it was a very good film. (The special effects were better than expected). The only issue with the film would be character development, as already mentioned. I was disappointed that they didn't expand on the characters such as the robbers and what possessed the house (although it was enough to make sense). But there could have been much more that the revealed about the characters, why were they stealing the gold? And more questions that I'm not going to spoil for those who want to see this film.

With that in mind, I would suggest this film if you'd like a quick scare or to be creeped out. If you can't draw your own conclusions you might have some trouble accepting this film, as it relies a lot of the views own imagination.

"Dead Birds" is a period piece haunted house story, set in the American South of 1863, with Civil War undertones. That may seem like a strange plot for a film, but, in this case it 99.9% works.

Henry Thomas has come a long way since E.T. and is almost unrecognizeable as the lead in this film, which, other than Isaiah Washington, features a slew of little known actors. A band of bank robbers, disguised as rebel soldiers holes up in an old abandoned house that they learned of from a young soldier who has since died. Trapped in this house, surrounded on all sides by a dead cornfield, they wait for dawn, while the past evil of the house slowly tries to consume them one by one....

....more than that and I'd spoil the plot. This is horror in the tradition of "Session 9", not the recent spate of Japanese remakes like "The Grudge" and "The Ring" and its a far cry from the latest Hollywood offerings like "Jeepers Creepers" and such.

The evil isnt trumped up then shoved down your throat as if you dont have a brain, and the demons are kept offscreen just enough to never become unscary. The anticipation of the scare in this film, is as big a payoff as the scare itself.

Although not perfect, since it follows tried and true "nobody would go in there" horror film formulas, it delivers wholeheartedly on the spookiness scale. Well worth your time..... pop it in, kill the lights and enjoy.

Set in 1863 Alabama DEAD BIRDS starts promisingly, but more like a traditional although violent western movie. A platoon of Confederate soldiers have just delivered a huge amount of gold at a local bank, when a group of bandits ride into town, massacre the soldiers, bank teller and director (some good gore on display here)and make their escape on horseback. They take shelter in an abandoned plantation surrounded by large corn fields. Their plan is to hide for the night before fleeing to Mexico the next day. It goes without saying that things do not turn out as planned... When approaching the decrepit building they are attacked by a weird doglike creature. One of the bandits was shot in the bank robbery and his condition worsens.
Tensions among the group members mount and the plantation turns out to be an extremely creepy place. Soon the desperados discover that the place has a dark secret...

I won`t go into any more detail plotwise, but let me assure you that DEAD BIRDS is a very enjoyable and entertaining horror film that will have you on the edge of your seat. Admittedly, the basic premise of the movie (a group of bandits on the lam after a hold up taking shelter in an isolated building surrounded by cornfields and falling prey to a supernatural evil that lurks there) is ripped off from another horror film, the equally good 1988 SCARCECROWS. (It is however not a remake of the earlier film.) Okay, it may not be groundbreakingly inventive storywise, but this did not mar my enjoyment of DEAD BIRDS! The film is thick with creepy athmosphere, added by a good use of the location and excellent photography. The period setting works very well, and it is nice for once to not have the usual stupid teenagers, who much to my annoyance populate the vast majority of US horror films. All actors are convincing in their roles.
Particular mention must be made of the creatures, which really look cool. Nice design! With the exception of an exploding head in the shootout at the beginning of the film (which looks a bit hokey) the effects do not fail to convince. As for the gore: yes, there is a bit of it, but mostly at the beginning of the film (bloody bullet impacts, slashings, the aforementioned exploding head), so do not expect a gorefest.
There is nothing to complain about the DVD, too. The film is presented in its correct aspect ratio and looks good. Accompanying the movie are several interesting extra features:
There is a good making-of, which covers all aspects of the film from pre-production, script writing to shooting and features interviews with actors, newcomer director Alex TURNER, producers and crew. It is about half an hour long. Then there are deleted scenes with optional audio commentary by the director. Admittedly none of the scenes adds much to the finished film. There is also the theatrical trailer for DEAD BIRDS, which sells the film well, as well as trailers for ANACONDAS: THE HUNT FOR THE BLOOD ORCHID, RESIDENT EVIL: APOCALYPSE, THE GRUDGE (the US remake, not the Japanese original) and a Jean Claude VAN DAMME actioner WAKE OF DEATH.
Recommended purchase for horror fans!

I originally saw a preview for 'Dead Birds' a month or two before its release and thought it looked like an interesting concept. I've always wondered why there aren't many horror flicks set during the Civil War. It seems like such a great time period and setting for scary movies.

I rented it on its release date(then purchased it a few days later)and was not disappointed at all. 'Dead Birds' is one of the flat-out best horror flicks I've ever seen. The plot revolves around some Confederate army deserters who rob a bank and then hide out in a deserted plantation house surrounded by a cornfield. Obviously, as the group soon discovers, there's is something really wrong with this house. The film is well acted, beautifully shot and edited. It is filled many genuine scares and some seriously creepy visuals.

There is alot going on in this movie but the makers of the film do something that not alot of filmmakers do: they don't hold your hand. They don't explain every little thing to you. It seems that just about the only horror films that do this are from Asia. Most US horror flicks('Scream', 'I Know What You Did Last Summer')not only over-explain everything but suck too. Here in 'Dead Birds' there are flashbacks and things that aren't completely explained. I love the fact that the makers didn't feel the need to dumb down the film. You actually have to think a little bit and come to some of your own conclusions. Its nice to see that some filmmakers in the US are finally starting to do this. Its also refreshing to actually have to think about a movie sometimes.

Another amazing thing is that low budget films are rarely period pieces. But 'Dead Birds' is set during the Civil War and you never get the feeling that its not the 1870s. Thats quite an accomplishment for a lower cost film. And even though a good bit of the film's budget, which was around $5 million, must have been sunk into period dress and sets, it seems that nothing else was skimped on. There are actors here you will recognize, the small amount of CGI is great...basically everything is so well done that you would think this was a $30 million dollar Hollywood production.

All in all, 'Dead Birds' is about the best horror film I've seen in years and definitely one of the best films of this year. Its scary, intelligent, well conceived, and beautifully executed. All I can do is thank the filmmakers for such a great movie and urge everyone else to see it.

Also, a little Did-You-Know about the film: the filmmaker's got to use some of the set-pieces(the in-town and bank sets)from the just-wrapped film 'Big Fish'. I'm sure this is another way that a film with such a low budget has such good production values.

a group of robbers on the run make the mistake of using an abandoned mansion as their hideout. Something terrible living inside the walls awaits them with a fate more frightening than the one they may find on the outside.
DVD has audio commentary, deleted scenes(not worth a damn), and a making of featurette.
has some pretty good gore and fairly descent acting for a "B" movie. definitely worth the 3.29 at blockbuster.