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The story: Birds in a small California town lose interest in bugs and berries and begin chasing bigger game.

The Birds is Alfred Hitchcock's second and last true horror film (though the inferior Frenzy in 1972 may qualify as horror) and arguably his last true classic. It begins playfully enough in a pet store (watch for Alfred here), with practical joker Melanie Daniels (Hedren) meeting her match in Mitch (Taylor) and following him up from San Francisco to Bodega Bay to attempt a last laugh. Would it be spoiling any surprises to say that of course they begin to fall in love? Hedren also gets uneasily involved with his possessive mother (Tandy) and regretful school-teacher ex (Pleshette). This is all amusing and Pleshette especially is quite sympathetic and affecting. This is when those with more modern tastes in horror films wonder when the birds are going to get testy, but Hitchcock is just setting you up to feel for these people when life gets ugly.

Eventually, a bird performs an aggressive act. Then two birds. Then smallgroups, building up to larger and larger groups of birds until the whole town is under siege and the film becomes quite intense and violent, especially for the early 60's. This all builds to an inconclusive ending that many find unsatisfying but I think is the only ending possible and one that lets you decide for yourself what is going to happen in the future. As usual, Hitchcock did some experimenting in this film. The experiment this time was the lack of music. The only background is bird noises, sometimes electronically generated and quite unnerving. There are also a few startling editing devices used to mostly fine effect.

I'll tread lightly now, because though there are no true plot twists or amazing revelations, it is best to walk into this movie knowing nothing else. Suffice it to say that Hitchcock manages to get the major characters isolated at various times and in true Hitchcock form, everyone is a potential bird dinner. Back in the old days, it wasn't just the bad guys or annoying people that got killed. In fact, there are no unsympathetic characters in the Birds, which adds to the suspense. You want everyone to get out alive. There are no overtly gory scenes, but there is enough tension for two or three modern horror films once the action gets cranked up. The claustrophobic scenes in a phone booth and in a dark attic are especially frightening.

It is a quite harrowing movie at times, so just relax and be harrowed. Hitchcock was a master at getting you to like his characters before putting them in dangerous situations, so there are many times where a modern film would fall flat while the Birds soars. This is because so much time and effort was taken to develop the characters before the first avian encounter.

The negatives: The special effects are given quite a bit of praise even today. I'm sure that at the time the film was made they were state-of-the-art but even to me they only work convincingly about half the time. The most effective scenes are the ones with real birds simply gathering and looking menacing, and I believe the sounds are more effective than the visuals here. The horror convention of having people make idiotic decisions to get themselves where the birds can whack them is also in abundance here. Also, as is not unusual with Hitchcock, some of the acting is a bit stiff and flat. Come to think of it, though, some of the acting looks worthy of an Oscar compared with much modern horror.

So, is it a perfect horror film? Not at all. Is it effective and scary and worth seeing at least once? Absolutely, and I own a copy myself and have seen it probably a dozen times. The Birds is another of the horror classics that is recommended material for the modern horror filmmaker to study, as there are many effective stylistic and storytelling elements here that are no longer in use. This is the 21st century horror fan's loss.

There was a sequel made in 1994, but director Rick Rosenthal was so disgusted with the final product that the film was credited to the pseudonymous Allan Smithee. I have not and will not watch this one, but be warned that it's universally regarded as trash.