Dead Birds (2004)
Genre: Horror / Western
Duration: 91 minuten
Country:
United States
Directed by: Alex Turner
Stars: Henry Thomas, Nicki Aycox and Isaiah Washington
IMDb score:
5,6 (11.878)
Releasedate: 19 May 2004
Dead Birds plot
"There are worse things than dying."
The American Civil War. After a bank robbery, a gang of criminals make off with a shipment of gold. They need a location to spend the night, and they find it in the form of an uninhabited mansion that stands in the vicinity of a plantation. During the stormy night, the gang members discover that they are not alone, and that the mansion has a dark history.
Actors and actresses
William
Clyde
Annabelle
Sam
Father
Joseph
Todd
Black Woman
Kormer
Girl Ghost
Reviews & comments
Bottleneck
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- 8233 messages
- 2119 votes
A very dark atmosphere and a captivating story, right up to the very end. It's quite puzzling and there's also some mutual mistrust, a few figures who go crazy and slowly it becomes clearer, without it becoming predictable. There's not too much gore but it looks fine, as do some atmospheric shots in that wet corn.
Only the build-up from the moment they are in the house takes too long, also has a few lesser scenes. And those typical demon faces that suddenly scream - it's something from the last few years and also seen a lot on youtube, but I don't like it. It is a plus that criminals sometimes serve as victims and that whole western / historical setting works well in combination with horror. (In that regard, Ravenous is a must.) 3.5*, go ahead
Translated from Dutch · View original
Tonypulp
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- 21231 messages
- 4608 votes
Huge surprise. Dead Birds looks in its presentation (look at that poster...) like weak B-gut... but turns out to be a pretty atmospheric and tasty gory genre film with (fortunately) few pretensions. Smooth in scope and a fine 19th century setting lay the foundation for the short bursts of gory entertainment and extremely bad CGI scares. The latter should not spoil the fun for me. It's striking that they use those moments on the back of the DVD release... to come back to the unfortunate presentation. In this way, unfortunately, a film is 'lost' for many enthusiasts who - let them be wrong - immediately put it in a box of films that probably waste your time. Fortunately I have a lot of time, so these kinds of guesses still fit in my movie diet 
.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Shadowed
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- 11421 messages
- 6719 votes
Mediocre.
Dead Birds is fun during the first 10 minutes, and when I saw it I was surprised at the view pointer. The 12+ is a daring choice because the blood flows in a decent way during the opening. Lots of gore and quite a bit of blood on the walls. Then the film descends again, and transforms into a fairly vague and surrealistic lot.
Unfortunately, that is not exactly beneficial to the end result, because I found it to be a tiring film above all. One that you can hardly get through after a while. What is striking about the film is that after a bloody slaughter in bright daylight it changes into a darkly lit creature film. That would make sense if you want to keep the monsters in the dark, but you can quickly see the first monster in bright daylight, so it doesn't make much sense anymore.
The tension within this film is hard to find, you have to make do with the fairly strong lighting. Cinematographically, the film is okay, it is just not to burn forward. Well-known actors, but none of them know how to put down a good character. Dull apparitions in the pitch dark, you soon start to yawn as a viewer.
It all just keeps on rippling until the cake is finished. The monsters don't come into the picture too well in the end, but the murders also lack the graphical added value that the first 10 minutes had. After a while, I simply sat out of the movie in sheer boredom. It builds a lot on atmosphere and tension but can hardly ever live up to it, and mainly falls into dullness.
It had potential, especially after the first 10 minutes, but the ammunition runs out after a while and then you're looking at a rather messy film with a lot of horror but little effectiveness. After a while, this film is just a difficult sit, and the still quite interesting structure of the first half is lost. Always a shame, but hey, it must be your thing. Nice to see some familiar horror pictures in this film.
Translated from Dutch · View original
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