{"id":1065,"date":"2025-09-05T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/?p=1065"},"modified":"2025-07-03T10:07:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T10:07:14","slug":"ornithophobia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/2025\/09\/05\/ornithophobia\/","title":{"rendered":"Ornithophobia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WARNING:<\/mark> <\/strong>This Article May Contain Spoilers<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s crazy to think that birds have never been too far when it comes to horror in both films and literature. Take The Birds <\/em>for example directed by Alfred Hitchcock or The Raven <\/em>written by Edgar Allen Poe. Even Stephen King used sparrows in Dark Half <\/em>as a symbol for the harbingers of death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaw<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

              I don\u2019t think it would be hard to confuse the birds in this film for crows, which being collectively known as \u2018a murder\u2019 would not have been a bad choice, but with the afore mentioned The Raven <\/em>using ravens isn\u2019t a bad idea. Truthfully, they actually make exactly that mistake at first in the film. I never quite realised how disturbing a raven\u2019s caw can be until I watched this film. Anyone who has read enough of these articles will know that I would not have been too happy about the fact that the ravens decided to kill Clyde\u2019s dog! He didn\u2019t do anything to them other than bark \u2013 he looked genuinely scared of them when they first appeared outside Clyde\u2019s barn. I genuinely started to get a little bit suspicious of the Mennonites being involved in what\u2019s been happening with the ravens, especially as Oskar and Jacob seems to behave rather oddly. It turns out I was right as it is their cows that get Mad Cow Disease that is infecting the ravens and making them behave in this way. OK, I know its not directly to blame but you know what I mean! I actually feel sorry for Clyde throughout the film, it\u2019s common that no one listens to the harbinger character but he is actively ridiculed by the people of the town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Terror Birds<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

              I\u2019m going to be honest, and admit that I tried to be a bit of nerd and find out what birds these \u201cterror birds\u201d were supposed to be as they looked a little familiar. Turns out they\u2019re Phorusracids from South America during the Cenozoic era if anyone was interested. Anyway, judging by the CGI on the birds I was expecting a pretty cheesy film \u2013 almost to the extent of Beaster Bunny <\/em>\u2013 but I was so glad that I was wrong. Not to say the acting is great but it could definitely be worse. What I was unclear about when it came to the plot of the film though was what Sullivan\u2019s motives were with regards to the birds. I also started to feel like Trent\u2019s character was only added into the story to be bird food \u2013 there\u2019s only mild interaction with the group and the fact there\u2019s already five of them, do you really need an additional person to kill? Interestingly, for a film based around killer birds, we barely see them throughout the film \u2013 the majority of their screen time is in the last 30 minutes. Now, I\u2019m not one for cliches but it was obvious from the first mention of Justin and Mady\u2019s feelings for him that they were going to be the ones at the end \u2013 didn\u2019t stop me hoping they would be killed!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ThanksKilling<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

              You know a film is going to be bad when it opens with the words \u201colden days\u201d and your actual shot of filmography is of a woman\u2019s breasts! To make it worse, the JonBenet Ramsay joke about Ali\u2019s easiness is made at least three times! This is the cheesiness and poor acting that I was expecting from Terror Birds. <\/em>Having said that, I like the fact that they used animation to tell the story of Crawberg and that this is the only bird that doesn\u2019t kill with its beak! This killer turkey carries weapons! I guess what makes it cheesy is that it falls into and then overplays the typical character tropes that are cleverly laid out in The Cabin in the Woods <\/em>\u2013 the jock, the nerd, the whore, the virgin and the idiot. The turkey itself is reminiscent of evil characters used in Killer Pinata <\/em>and Killer Sofa <\/em>with it\u2019s crass language and ridiculous puns. I know what I\u2019m thankful for, and that\u2019s fact that this film is as short as it is with its 70 minutes runtime but it didn\u2019t mean that I was longing for everyone to be killed the whole time. Especially as the core group of characters in this film are so thick! How can Kristen not tell that the turkey is posing as her father \u2013 the height difference alone would make that obvious! My wish was very nearly granted!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Giant Claw<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

              I don\u2019t exactly know where to start with this film. I mocked Tarantula <\/em>and the way it was filmed when the creature walked through the town but the way this bird looks is just crazy and not in a good way. I don\u2019t mean because the animation is bad or anything but the thing itself just looks odd! It\u2019s like a cross between a turkey and I don\u2019t what. Now, the audience do not see the bird, or La Carcagne as it becomes referred to, until around 30 minutes in, which given the run time is not too far from the end, the film plays on confusion and superstition. What bothers me is that it takes a fourth sighting for them to realise that its even a bird so had it been using it\u2019s anti-matter \u201cshield\u201d to avoid being seen by the human eye as well as not being detected by the radar? I like the fact that for once this isn\u2019t a creature that\u2019s been created in some sort of lab, like Tarantula, <\/em>but isn\u2019t it turned out to be some sort of alien. What I love though is that it wasn\u2019t a perfect resolution, they fail time after time before they get the result they need.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Birdemic: Shock and Terror<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

              I\u2019m going to come right out and say it, this film feels really strange! It\u2019s cut together so badly that you would think it was student made with a lower budget than $10,000. Because of this, it actually made Thankskilling <\/em>look good! There\u2019s very little dialogue and what there is feels very stilted and awkward \u2013 so much so that it comes across like Ellie isn\u2019t interested in anything Rod has to say on their date. A relationship which they spend most of the time building as well as focusing on character development rather than focusing on any birds. When the birds do FINALLY appear, about 47 minutes into the film, they have clearly been digitally added and I would say digitally created because at times they don\u2019t seem to move naturally. In all honesty, this feels more like a comment on climate change, as they keep mentioning Rod\u2019s eco-friendly car and solar panels, rather than a horror film. Oh, they also blame global warming for the birds attacking people. Supposedly this took inspiration from Alfred Hitchcock\u2019s The Birds, <\/em>which I can tell from the last 40 minutes of the film but they lost the tension and fear aspect of the film completely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beaks<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

              You want to talk about a film that\u2019s similar to The Birds <\/em>that also has a moral to the story but is pretty good? This is the one. Especially since it has also been referred to as Beaks: The Birds 2<\/em>. It\u2019s clear from certain effects used in some attacks and deaths that this film was not Hollywood-made as to me they seem reminiscent of those shown in Giallo films or those that have been considered as video-nasties (just not quite as gruesome as the latter). They discuss the fact that the birds may be attacking due to man\u2019s effect on their ecological standing but they don\u2019t make it a common theme throughout the film so I think Birdemic <\/em>could have learnt a lot from this. I wouldn\u2019t say this film is out and out scary but then neither is The Birds <\/em>– it just doesn\u2019t seem to have the same psychological presence. This might be because it is happening on a wider scale rather than it taking place in just a small town. This may sound a little sick but I actually think it is a clever touch that the birds end up covered in blood when they attack the farmer and his wife. Swarming and attacking like that, there\u2019s no way you\u2019re coming out clean! There is only thing that bothers me though \u2013 they keep saying people had been attacked by doves \u2013 what we see are common pigeons!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WARNING: This Article May Contain Spoilers It\u2019s crazy to think that birds have never been too far when it comes to horror in both films and literature. Take The Birds for example directed by Alfred Hitchcock or The Raven written by Edgar Allen Poe. Even Stephen King used sparrows in Dark Half as a symbol … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-extreme-fear-can-neither-fight-nor-fly","latest_post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1065"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1066,"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1065\/revisions\/1066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}