Hitchcock's The Birds is Still Frightening Even Today

Before horror movies such as Steven King’s It and The Shining, before Jaws, before those Apocalyptic zombie films graced our screens to frighten us, we had Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds.

Just this past summer, I had the opportunity to watch the 1963 Hitchcock film, The Birds on the big screen of a local movie theater that shows classic movies during summer. I was especially excited to watch it as I have not seen it in such a significant amount of time so it was like seeing it for the first time all over again.

The Birds is a classic. And like many great classics no matter the genre, it is still able to stand the test of time. The Birds is still able to instill fear today as it did when it premiered back in 1963. I found it absolutely fascinating that Hitchcock could make something as seemingly innocent and harmless such as birds into something that has the potential to give us nightmares.

The Birds started out giving viewers a relaxed idea that nothing ominous would be happening. There was even a bit of humor in the beginning as well as a cameo appearance from Hitchcock himself.

What I especially like about The Birds is the slow build up of suspense. When you at least expect it, when nothing looks like it will happen, that's when the first bird attacks. There's a pause and then the next attack happens.

I jumped when the first bird, a seagull, attacked Melanie Daniels when she was in the boat. I was on the edge of my seat when the crows began to multiply on the playground equipment of the school later terrorizing and attacking the children. The crows at the playground scene was one of my favorites because it slowly builds up suspense. At first, there is just one crow, seemingly innocent perching nearby on the playground. And then the scene builds up into something more sinister and frightening — a mass of crows covering the playground equipment ready to attack at any moment.

The Birds is not only a classic horror film capable of instilling fear in today’s viewers. Perhaps quite surprisingly, it is also loosely based on a true event.

Flashback to 1961 before the release of The Birds. The Monterey Bay area of California had experienced a rather peculiar and disturbing occurrence with the birds in the area. The residents of the Monterey Bay area witnessed masses of birds acting very strangely — flying haphazardly into the sides of buildings. What is perhaps most disturbing about this strange real life occurrence is that at that time, no one had an explanation for the birds’ strange behavior.

It would be years later before scientists would be able to find an answer. It was then discovered that these birds had ingested toxic algae. Ingesting this algae via the fish they ate, gave the birds amnesia and seizures which explained their strange and disoriented behavior.

This was a really interesting fact as I had no idea previously, that this horror film was loosely based on these strange yet very real events.

While learning about these events gives new insight to the horror film, these true events are just as frightening in their own way. Maybe even more. While birds didn’t viciously attack people during the real event, I’m sure it was still pretty frightening for those that had experienced it. What’s even more scary is that this event could very well happen again. Maybe?

Whenever I happen to see a hoard of seagulls in a parking lot, black birds perched on a telephone wire, or any hoard of birds congregating in any way for that matter, I think of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds.