Horror and thriller movies were born out of a need for us to confront fears and conquer something we do not understand. ‘The Birds’ directed by Alfred Hitchcock delivers the audience both of those two promises. The movie shows how something that is perceived as peaceful, such as birds, can turn into a terrifying presence at any time. The movie explains this through the main character of the film Melanie Daniels and the other characters she meets along in the movie such as Mitch Brenner and Annie Hayworth.
The movie takes place in Bodega Bay, a rural coastal town with a small population of residents, which is classified as a normal world setting. This impacts the film because the viewer feels a sense of safety and familiarity. However, this feeling of protection is broken once the attacks begin to happen and people start to realize that they are in extreme danger. This ultimately impacted the total scare factor of the movie by having the attacks happen at random points in the movie. This would make the audience eager throughout the entire film expecting the attacks to happen. Having the setting be a small town also relates to one of the main themes of the film is that you are never truly safe and anything bad could happen at any time without explanation.
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Horror and thriller movies have many aspects that make them work. Alfred Hitchcock's ‘The Birds’ includes many of those aspects. One of those aspects the Hitchcock conveys to the audience is establishing a normal world that is threatened by the presence of the 'other’. He does this by setting up Bodega Bay as a completely normal and innocent town with typical people living in it. This escalates later on in the movie when the attacks from the birds grow more substantial in size and more erratic. By the end of the movie, the other has taken complete control of the bay.
Another narrative element ‘The Birds’ contains within it is having the main characters be the few people who recognize the threat the birds possess. This is portrayed after the school children are attacked and Melanie is in the dinner with the other town folk. She expresses how dangerous the birds have become and they must be stopped. However, one character by the name of Mrs. Bundy explains how she is foolish to think this and that the birds would never attack humans. She is soon proven wrong when the birds become responsible for setting part of the town on fire resulting in complete hysteria throughout Bodega Bay. In this scene, Hitchcock uses lighting in a very profound way. UK essays describes it this way: “During the scene where the old woman talks about the scientific facts concerning the birds, we see bright colors and vivid lighting but as the birds begin to attack it seems to get darker”.
Horror movies deliver to the audience that other films cannot, a story that causes a viewer to confront their fears and conquer something they do not comprehend. The movie incorporates many aspects of horror and thriller movies causing it to be a great example of what a horror or thriller movie should be. ‘The Birds’ by Alfred Hitchcock tells the story of how something we perceive as innocent can turn into a terrifying entity that we have never seen the likeness of before.
Reference
- 'Alfred Hitchcock The Birds Analysis'. UKEssays.com. 11/2018. All Answers Ltd. 11/2019.
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Analysis of Alfred Hitchcock’s Horror Movie ‘The Birds’.
(2023, January 31). Edubirdie. Retrieved December 22, 2024, from https://edubirdie.com/examples/analysis-of-alfred-hitchcocks-horror-movie-the-birds/
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2023 Jan 31 [cited 2024 Dec 22].
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