Alfred Hitchcock and The Birds

Alfred Hitchcock- The Birds (1963)

•      119 min  -  Horror | Thriller

•      Director:

•      Alfred Hitchcock

•      Writers:

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

•      Stars:

•      Rod Taylor, Tippi Hedren and Suzanne Pleshette

When a very wealthy San Francisco citizen chases a potential lover to a Northern California town that quickly takes a bad turn when all the birds in the area join together and viciously attack the citizens of the small town.

The Birds is an Archetypal thriller in the aspect that it has a constant switch of normality and an adrenaline filled action sequences. Hitchcock uses this in a remarkable way in which future thrillers are based upon.

One of the main features Hitchcock uses in his film is the aspect that the main threat is nature, by using something that we encounter on a daily basis and using them as the one thing that could destroy us, Hitchcock adds a huge sense of fear and realisation which gets the viewer’s adrenaline going.

Often throughout his films there is a constantly occurring feature of there being nowhere to hide, by making everything a dangerous place Hitchcock makes the viewer never feel safe.

The birds does not always follow traditional thriller patterns in the aspect that the hero must always falter the villains plans, as there is no real hero and no real villain, the concept of the whole ‘birds being the danger’ makes the viewer feel helpless as you cannot stop the birds.

Suspense is built in The Birds specifically in the chicken farm scene, as the mother is slowly walking through the house in complete silence, tension builds and a feeling of danger and dread builds up quickly for the viewer.

Dramatic irony plays a key part in the film as we often know something the character does not, for example the school scene, we can see the birds amassing whereas the character is completely oblivious to the threat that she faces.

By finishing the film without a “the end” Hitchcock gives the viewer a feeling of dread, as the problem is not solved as most thrillers are, the problem persists and we are left wondering what happened, this helps play onto a person’s emotions as they are constantly left wondering what happened, and can also cause the feeling of dread to lead over into the real world as the viewer does not know what actually happens to the birds.

Hitchcock said thrillers allow the audience, "to put their toe in the cold water of fear to see what it's like” he definitely succeeded in letting the viewer put their toe in cold water as many of them left the theatre extremely scared, in the premiere, once people had left, a screeching bird sound played from nearby trees, this was the icing on the cake as the viewer had all of their emotions from the film roll over into the real world, giving them an immense feeling of dread.