Dead Birds' worth it for good ending

By: Joe Wenzel

Posted: 3/17/05

Imagine being a robber in 1863 and having just pulled off your biggest heist. You have found your way to an abandoned house and are one night away from Mexico. Basically, you are hours away from a robbers' heaven. Everything looks good and then things start happening, things that cannot be explained.

This is the premise for the movie "Dead Birds." Never heard of it? It is a low budget horror film, made for $2 million, and is the first project for director Alex Turner. It was never released into many movie theaters after its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. It then disappeared until its DVD release.

One of the major problems with getting into the movie is the setting. First of all, it is set in 1863, and things have changed a lot since then. The movie establishes the setting as being isolated. The house is abandoned in the middle of nowhere with a storm coming. But, it is hard to identify with a time like that since it is 2005 and now we have an invention called cell phones and we have cars for transportation instead of horses.

The characters of "Dead Birds" are supposed to be robbers. In the opening scene, the robbers kill 10 people with almost no remorse, but for the remainder of the film, the men are easily scared by vague images or jump when they hear the slightest sound. The robbers pray, cry and try to save little boys. They never act tough or like robbers at all after their initial killing spree. It makes them less convincing as characters and reduces the horrifying effect.

The movie resembles many different horror pictures. It resembles "Ghost Ship" because both films contain criminals and pose the question: do these men deserve to be saved because of who they are? It uses the scare tactics from "The Grudge." Again "children" are used to scare the viewer early in the movie. The movie also has a sacred book, which unlocks evil similar to the book of dead in "Evil Dead 2." The movie also puts the characters in an isolated place with cornfields, which was used in both "Jeepers Creepers" movies. One of the actors, Nicki Lynn Aycox is from "Jeepers Creepers 2."

During the making of "Dead Birds" featurette, producer Tim Peternel appeared to be drunk while being interviewed. He is consistently drinking throughout the featurette.

"We are either going to pull this f***ing thing off, or get f***ed," Peternel said.

This comment makes the viewer think less of the picture, especially because it is the crew's first major project.

The other features are basic for a low budget film. The movie features include the "Dead Birds" theatrical trailer and a few previews for other horror movies. There are deleted scenes, but many of them just have added dialogue to scenes that are kept in the film.

So why rent a low budget horror movie that no one has heard of? The final 10 minutes give the viewers an ending to die for and will require several viewings. It's up to you to decide if four dollars is worth a great 10 minutes.