User reviews

In terms of production value, the film looks great. It's got better actors than most horror flicks and the FX and monsters are good. It also has a good creepy vibe to it and some good scares. The problem is, the script doesn't really go anywhere after they get to the house... Its basically a series of creepy scenes where the cast dwindles as we go along, but you don't really have a sense of escalating tension.

The first half worked fairly well, but it doesn't change much as it goes along. We get some backstory as we go that wasn't that creepy to me, and its also pretty clear they didn't know how to end it. The ending they have just doesn't work at all.

My biggest complaint though is the soundtrack which is way too repetitive and is basically a ripoff from the Shining soundtrack.

Its okay if you want to get some decent scares, but its not going to blow you away.

I just watched the film at the Toronto international film festival (during the midnight madness screening), and I didn't know what to think going into the film.

So the plot goes like this. A bunch of civil war renegade/criminals rob some confederates for gold, and then venture to a hideout place (huge abandoned mansion) that was recommended by someone. But something is wrong with this place... something very wrong.

The movie is similar to the lines of an Evil Dead style horror film. People go into a house, something is wrong with the house. Many conventional elements happen within the film as well, and some interesting ideas come as well. There were some jumps, but unfortunately there could have been more, and it could have been more suspenseful with a bigger payoff.

The problem that I found with the film, was the character development. there was some substance with each character, but they didn't expand on much of it. They didn't expand too much of about the monster / villain the film either. It was kind of a let down. Defiently compared to another low budget horror film, that I just saw at the festival (Creep).

With such a low budget, the special effects were great. The film has a decent look to it and the music was fantastic. Overall, I had a good time, but if it was in a normal theater, it would be a huge let down. 6 out of 10.

This isn't great horror, but it's definitely good enough to watch; I would watch it again in a minute. Certainly the territory has been covered before with shock horror and a twist ending, but I wasn't expecting some great burst of originality, just a decent movie experience, and I found it.

There are the standard horror clichés; people where they shouldn't be, ignoring all the warning signs and acting somewhat stupidly. You've seen it before, you'll see it again, and it's here in all it's splendor - however, that doesn't spoil the movie. There are decent special effects, some good shock moments, and a twist at the end to fulfill your expectations and keep you from falling asleep.

It's worth a rental if you're in the mood for some horror and nothing else catches your eye.

With a film that deserved to play in theaters, horror fans will now have the pleasure of seeing what is truly a surprising film. Packed with great performances, a great hook, fantastic special effects, and a twist ending that will surely please the most jaded film buff, Dead Birds deserves a place in your DVD collection. Taking a well worn premise, Dead Birds fashions it as a period piece and deliberately builds slowly to maximize tension and frights. While not a monster fest, the director wisely and selectively trots out his beasts for the most dramatic impact. Henry Thomas gives an astounding performance and makes you question why we do not see more of him. Overall, an intriguing experience all the way to the final frames.

I can't argue about this film for one reason. it only cost me One quid to buy. Now with one pound, you can end up buying films such as " the swamp thing" or the one with the giant tomatoes or any early Nicolas Cage film. However, Dead birds is not all that bad. Don't let the title put you off or the DVD case. Sure the title and cover art is cheap but the film itself is very polished.

The film is based in the American civil war era and I rather enjoyed that as there not to many films that focus on that era. The opening is dramatic but after the first ten minutes, the film's pace slows right down. You end up having to watch a bunch of outlaws wondering around a deserted house for half an hour with very little dialogue and character development. This can put many people off but during this part, The director creates a brilliant, spooky atmosphere that is helped with great music . The camera work doesn't contribute to the atmosphere as it lacks any creativity . But visual, the film looks great.

The huge drawback is that there wasn't to many scares. You watch these men ( and woman ) wonder around the house to only be let down by cheap jump out scares. the effects are mediocre at best. The acting is great all around but it all goes to waste. You watch them do nothing for the whole of the film until the last 15 minutes. The back story of house is told in about, 45 seconds which happens in a flashback.

I can't help but feel that this film could of been so much better. The atmosphere was spot on and the acting was good but the film doesn't really do any justice. It weren't the worst film ever but either was it the best. Would i watch again? most likely not. For me it was a just a miss.

In the wonderfully bloodthirsty opening to Dead Birds, a gang of ruthless criminals hold up a bank, killing everyone inside and getting away with a fortune in Confederate gold. They travel to a deserted farmhouse, where they intend to spend the night, before travelling to Mexico to share their ill-gotten gains.

But, in the tradition of many a horror film, this particular house is home to some hideous demons, unleashed by the owner in a black-magic ritual gone wrong.

Director Alex Turner is content to take his time building the tension and setting the mood, and this is perhaps his undoing; by the time he is ready to unleash the demons and let the horror truly begin, the audience has had to sit through far too much chatter from the thieves and watch their aimless wandering around the spooky old house. A few effective shocks (using pretty good CGI FX) are thrown in to liven up the proceedings, but it just isn't enough – even a few more gory moments do little to improve matters.

After a promising start, I thought I had discovered a real treat. Alas, it turned out to be nothing more than a so-so affair.

This is a classic example of a semi-competent film in need of a story. A great deal of work was put into atmosphere, and the actors work very hard. But the plot - if you can call it such - is a tale full of sound design and furious art direction, signifying nothing. In short, I think the writer - if there was a writer - had to be lit like a Roman candle when he or she typed out the disparate story lines here (which are never developed and only hastily resolved in terribly brief, unsatisfying scenes). Most of the action involves the usual "let's split up and search" trope, and the "scares" from creepy things jumping out at the viewer.

Sad, sad sad waste of perfectly good film.

Good acting, and interesting concept. But this ends being just spooky. Didn't really go anywhere but in it's own circle. Time period isn't relevant as it is only about the mystical happens that took place before and are still present. Not bad for a late night watch.

I have long felt that the western genre was ripe to be mixed with the horror genre and it's nice to finally see someone agree with me. Mixing the elements alone wouldn't have worked if the film was lacking, fortunately that is not the case.

During the civil war period, a gang performs a violent bank robbery and then steals off, heading for the border with Mexico. Along the way they stop for rest at an abandoned farm. During their stay it begins to become increasingly clear that things are not right with the house and the land it occupies. Before long survival becomes the only question.

The set-up itself is not original, but the time period most certainly is. It takes an already violent period in history and puts an even darker twist on it.

Complimenting the action well is an overall nice cast that seem to fit their roles and avoid chewing the scenery. I give biggest props to the creature designers; though there is precious little footage of the beasts, what you do get to see is unique and frightening.

One of the better horror films in recent years, combining atmosphere and suspense with some good-old-fashioned visceral scares for max effect. The only glaring problem is a prodding mid-section of the film that runs on a little too long without much happening.

Quality scares worth a look.

8/10

Anyone reading the rating for this film (5.6) would assume this is a slightly better than average horror flick.

In fact its only the way IMDb calculates the weighted average that gives it such a low score - the median average is 6.6 which still too low for this film.

This is a way above average horror flick.

Setting the action in the time of the American Civil War works brilliantly. The story moves at a delivered tempo due to the excellence of the largely unknown cast, the spooks are spooky, the shocks are shocking but the real tour de force is the soundtrack.

From early on in the piece the music gives the film an edge - remorselessly maintained throughout yet never intrusive.

A high quality watch. Not a classic - not an award winner just a thoroughly enjoyable 90 minutes of escapism.

You wont be disappointed.

Wow, DEAD BIRDS starts off on a strong footing, with an well-staged bank robbery and subsequent trek through the countryside by a band of renegade soldiers who've abandoned their army during the American Civil War. The film boasts strong production values for a low budget, and plenty of atmosphere in its depiction of the war-torn countryside. The cast is pretty interesting too, with the likes of former child star Henry Thomas, a pre-fame Michael Shannon, and Isaiah Washington excelling as the soldiers-turned-outlaws.

I really thought we were going to be in for something special here, because for the first hour DEAD BIRDS puts every foot right, especially thanks to a wonderful soundtrack. It's all single, extended notes and distorted noise, and it builds up a superbly creepy atmosphere as the gang reach a haunted house in the middle of nowhere and bed down for the night.

Then, sadly, it falls apart. Nothing much is explained, and instead the group are picked off one by one by barely-seen spirits. There are some gory bits, and some more creepy bits, but none of it makes much sense, and it stays like that till the very end. I loved the Lovecraftian flavour of the unfolding incidents but with a better story this could have been something special; as it is it just sort of lapses into nothingness.

I thought the pacing was excellent! I was hooked from the very beginning when the first possie of soldiers road into town.

Really great. Ominous. The music was fantastic. So much so that I wanted a mute button because it got me shaking in my seat. The acting was strong - I had a soft spot for Michael Shannon - he has a Christopher Walkeness about him:) I have to tell you that I hid my eyes every time the music reved up for a "BOO" moment so I didn't see all the special effects!!!

I was with a friend who is a big horror fan and he said that he really enjoyed it.

So would I tell my friends to see this movie? the ones that I know are Thriller/horror fans YES!

Painfully long bits punctuated by cheap jump scares. Underutilized cast. Story was interesting but it wasn't told well.

Did someone recommend this to you because you like The Burrowers? They're not your friend.

In 1863, in Fairhope, Alabama, a group of former Confederate soldiers robbers a commerce bank and kills many clients and employees. While escaping to Mexico, they spend the night in an isolated house that belonged to a dead soldier of their company. When weird events happen in the stormy night, they find that the dwellers are demons.

"Dead Birds" is a reasonable low-paced horror movie. The watchable and forgettable story has good special effects and entertains, without being special. Indicated for a rainy weekend only. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "A Casa dos Pássaros Mortos" ("The House of the Dead Birds")

Definitely worth renting. Amongst all the Hollywood crap released week after week, I strongly recommend checking this film out. No CGI special effects but rather going back to the basics seen in old 80's horror movies. Decent script and acting for a straight to video release. Refreshinfly different, and even worth purchasing for DVD collectors. If there was an award show for straight to video releases, Deadbirds would be nominated if not win most awards. I realize that this is not saying much but trust me and just give it a chance. Definitely a hidden gem. I don't understand why it did not get any distribution in theatres.

During the Civil War, a group of bank robbers runs into the countryside to hide out in a deserted house in the middle of nowhere to regroup and plan their next course of action, but when they find themselves under attack from malicious spirits unleashed by the previous owner must try to get out of the house alive.

This one here was a pretty overall entertaining film. The best feature here is that the house where the action takes place is perfectly suited to deliver on the thrills provided. It's large and spacious, with the echoing hallways, sparse furniture, washed-out rotting wood, and few decorations giving off a great vibe before letting anything else happen. Since the last half occurs during a raging thunderstorm, it helps the film immeasurably since there are numerous times where a sequence occurs in a pitch-black room only to have it light up for several seconds due to the flashing thunderbolt. It's a great opportunity to get some great atmosphere and really helps those scenes maintain a creepy, chilling vibe that is also enhanced quite nicely with the giggling child voices speaking in the distance or footsteps echoing throughout the hallways which makes the atmosphere that much better. There's also a lot to like with ghostly action here. Some of the spooky encounters work, such as the discovery of the diary containing the then0unknown summoning spells, the birthing sequence hallucination in the barn, or its true out-and-out classic where, after a systematic search through the room, one goes under the bed and finds nothing then a ghostly apparition appears out-of-nowhere a second later. It's a fantastic scare and gives life to the film by making for a much more obvious and overt sense of menace from the ghosts inhabiting the house. Even outside in the cornfields gets some good moments, as the opening exploration of the fields includes a great jump where a flesh-less corpse comes lunging out at them to a fantastic encounter to make them move into its great ending easier. That in itself is a lot of fun focusing on the demon-baby births and occult rituals and is more than enough to make the film worthwhile, much like the last part that works which is the action-packed opening comprising of a great bank robbery and a horseback shootout that is a lot of fun. These here are the film's best parts. This one here had some flaws to it. It has one of the single most confusing stories ever. This one here is just a mess to try to explain, and it tries too much to get away with. There's a feeling that had it just been kept to the haunted demon's story, it would've been more coherent since there's some nice work done with that segment and it makes a lot of sense. Once it introduces the abusive father and the demonic avenger's angles and tries to relate them to what has happened so far, it's just so hard to get into because there's too much of it. Another rather big flaw is that the pace here is way too slow-going at times. The middle section here is quite slow since it has an eternity-long card game that just has way too much time going nowhere that it just has nothing at all that adds to the flawed nature of the film. These here, though are a part of the style and are the film's few flaws.

Rated R: Violence, Graphic Language, and a mild sex scene.

I did not like this movie at all. I have no idea why anyone would say that they liked this movie or understood it. It had no point and I still do not understand the title "Dead Birds". Where are these dead birds at? Are these humans mixed with birds? What do birds have to do with this movie? The movie was very confusing by who was dead and who was alive and what was happening to these people. It as dark, demented, and sickening. The synopsis of this movie that encouraged me to rent this movie was very misleading and incorrect. The only thing scary about this movie was how loud the noises were and those ugly people with no skin on them jumping out all over the place. Other than those facts this was neither horror or a thriller. This movie was so bad that it put myself and my guests to sleep. We got up the next day to try and watch the movie again, while barely staying awake, we managed to choke down this god awful movie and it's entirety. I wish there was some type of way that you could get a refund on movies that you rent that you are completely dissatisfied with. This movie would be on the top of my list. Do not waste your time renting or purchasing this movie.

Dead Birds is directed by Alex Turner and written by Simon Barrett. It stars Henry Thomas, Nicki Aycox, Isaiah Washington, Patrick Fugit, Michael Shannon, Mark Boone Junior, Harris Mann and Muse Watson. Music is scored by Peter Lopez and cinematography by Steve Yedlin.

1863 and it's the back end of the American Civil War, a group of Confederate deserters rob their own army's gold being delivered to the bank of Fairhope. Leaving a bloody trail in their wake, the group set off for Mexico but must stop for rest and recuperation at a deserted farm mansion over looking a long dead plantation. With a storm moving in and tempers among the thieves running high, it soon becomes evident that something otherworldly resides at the house and the surrounding area.

Dead Birds is a little cracker, a straight to video horror film that to my mind puts to shame some of the big budgeted piles of crap that get released to the multiplexes on a seemingly weekly basis. Of course, horror is very subjective, where along with comedy it forms a pair of genres guaranteed to produce films that will never ever please everyone. Falling into the haunted house sub-genre of horror, Dead Birds, in spite of its unique Civil War period setting, has been lambasted by many a horror fan for not being fresh, that it's a collage of other horror movies. There's some truth to that, but we could level that charge at 98% of horror movies anyway! But Dead Birds (crap title btw) does have a cult fan base, a fan base I'm very much proud to be part of.

Alex Turner, for his first feature length debut, has crafted a haunted house picture that positively pulses with dread, with its slow deliberate pacing and hushed conversational tones, the atmosphere crackles with unease. The opening credits are jet black and rise from the earth like spectral portents of death. Then after the fireworks of the robbery, things settle into a sort of ethereal rhythm. The gang make their way to their doom through a murky landscape until they reach what they don't know is their final destination; the plantation, a place that just reeks of death and disharmony.

The cornfield is long dead and home to a strange creature, the battered old scarecrow looks ripe for a fright and a dead bird on the floor is ominous. The house itself is a two story wooden type not used often in tales of this type. It looks moody, as does the servants quarters, there's also a creepy barn with its hayloft and a water well of course. These are genre staples for sure, but Turner gathers all the clichés and gives them a new lease of life in a new period setting. The secret is in the lighting, Turner and Yedlin (Brick/Looper) light from down low, giving off a wonderful eerie effect as the gang trudge around this place of misery. It may sound like an oxy-moronic statement, but this is one beautifully shot horror film.

Then there's the shocks, the boo-jump moments (sadly revealed in the trailer for those unfortunate to not see the film first), these are not frequent so as to make the film reliant on them, they are used sparingly and only to advance the plot as the plantation's history literally comes to life. The cast are on fine form (Thomas and Washington standing out), working well with a dynamic infused with greed, mistrust, jealousy and racism. Lopez's musical score blends foreboding rumbles with spine chilling shards of noise, while Turner slots in some oblique angles to further enhance the feeling of hopeless disorientation. It may cover familiar ground, that of a bunch of folk in a spooky house being bumped off one by one, with suspicions aroused, but Dead Birds is very much its own animal. Hee, literally. 8/10

Above average low budget horror with decent acting, good sets, very good make-up and effects (with a very freaky-looking monster), effective score and use of sound. Dead Birds is genuinely creepy and scary, due to the latter attributes as well as the isolated location. The Civil War setting adds a nice twist. Two problems I have: 1) the explanation for the goings-on is provided too abruptly and with a jarring lack of subtlety. In the Making Of featurette the writer says he thought the original script was too oblique in its explanation, so it appears he had a difficult time finding a balance between being too obvious and too opaque. 2) All of the main characters are pretty bad people. In the first five minutes of the movie they all participate in a bloody massacre of innocent people, so it's difficult to root for them when things go bad. On the other hand, one could argue that this is kind of the point - that they get what they deserve, so maybe this is not a fair criticism. In any case, Dead Birds seems to have become a bit of an underground classic among horror afficionados and is a 7 star effort.

The tagline for Dead Birds pretty much says it all. "There are worse things than dying" shows a complete lack of imagination, which is something common throughout this mundane movie. Ghost stories, particularly modern ones, tend to be rather boring and this film doesn't do anything to dispute that fact. The fact that it's set in the past also goes some way to ensuring that Dead Birds isn't very good. The period setting doesn't do the plot any favours, and it would have been far easier to relate to a more modern setting. Horror films set in the past tend to be rubbish, and again; this film doesn't do anything to dispute that. The plot line has been seen a million times before in other films, and, I'm sure, will go on to be used again and again, despite being old and tired. The plot follows a group of bank robbers that hole up in a farmhouse overnight after a storm impedes their escape into Mexico. Of course, this isn't just any house and because of the 'terrible' atrocities that happened there (blah blah blah), our heroes find themselves the victims of the ghosts that inhabit the house. Blah. Blah. Blah.

For some reason, people tend to think this sort of horror is good. Of course, there has been some good examples; The Shining, for example. But that film had far more going for it than just the plot line itself. Recent examples of this sort of film, which include the likes of The Grudge (Jap version and remake) and Deathwatch, are very trite and dull films and once you've seen one; you've seen them all. You just know what's going to happen before going into this film, and the film doesn't surprise us at all. We've got loads of people with white faces, some "shocking" imagery and a bunch of dull actors portraying a bunch of dull characters. You would think that, since this film has pretty much been made before, the writer and director team of Simon Barrett and Alex Turner would be keen to do something a little different this time round. Quite why they're happy to just make 'another ghost movie' is anyone's guess, but the best way to show your disapproval is simply not to bother seeing this film. You might have heard that this is one of the better horrors of this decade, but it's not. You heard it here first - forget about this movie.... you'll wish you did.