Movie Review: Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds"

We aren't horror movie people, but psychological thrillers are another matter. We'd watched a few Hitchcock movies together before, but were especially intrigued to see "The Birds" because it's the Hitchcock movie that made our mom swear off Hitchcock movies.

Going into this movie, we both had a bit of a skeptical mindset as to how realistic and frightening it would be. We're here to tell you now, it's intense. Yes, there are moments when you can easily detect fabrication and manipulation. But there are also shots that are pretty darn convincing. Way more real birds were used than we expected. Sound effects were put to good use, and the actors' terror felt very realistic. 

Because we're nerds, we watched a DVD extra about the making of the movie that was over an hour in length. It was super interesting and served to give us greater appreciation for the ingenuity and hard work that went into the making of the film.

A couple things to be prepared for as a viewer:

• People die. There are some disconcerting close-up shots.
• The movie ends rather unexpectedly. When the credits started rolling, we both looked at each other in disbelief.

We both liked this movie and would recommend it to people who like Hitchcock films and/or thrillers. It's definitely not for everyone, though.