God created light, Alfred Hitchcock knew how to put it off
Alfred Hitchcock, the man responsible behind giving the thriller and horror genres a new edge, created numerous masterpieces, which if watched alone, even today, sends a chill down one's spine. His film 'The Birds' is one of them.
ALFRED HITCHCOCK, the man behind various psychological thrillers created many masterpieces, and his style is emulated even to this day. Out of the numerous movies that he directed, The Birds is yet another Alfred Hitchcock’s intelligent innovation. His onscreen experimentations with Psycho, Rear Window and many others brought a certain level of expectation with his next releases. The genres observed in this movie are horror, romance, mystery and thriller. He had the charm of narrating his stories through intelligent plots, witty dialogues and right amount of mystery and murder.
Hitchcock has established a distinct style in each of his films but horror is his niche. Probably the most unintentional horror of the film is the acting of the lead actress, Tippi Hedren, a former model. In Birds, he used the sound of the birds to scare audiences in a whole new way The use of sound in the movie constantly switches, utilising both noise and silence. Hitchcock did this to create suspense and fear, not only when the birds were attacking, but also when they weren't. He did not use natural bird sounds. Instead, he implemented electronic re-workings of bird sound, which worked even better to scare audiences.
The first hour of the movie doesn’t have much to do with the horror element. The story develops where Melanie Daniels (played by Tippi Hedren) meets Mitch Brenner (played by Rod Taylor) and how she follows him to Bodega Bay. She gets attracted to the man and decides to stay back the night. Thus Hitchcock has smoothly incorporated the romance aspect. Also, how Mitch tries to help Melanie from the birds reflects this genre’s presence even more.
The movie is filled with constant thrill and is full of ambiguities. Building expectation and increasing anxiety are used effectively to manipulate the audience. In this technique, the audience is given information and is educated of the impending fate of the character, while the character is left in the dark. The whole fate is not yet known, however they are aware of imminent danger and what could possibly happen to that character. This creates a lot of tension in the audience, as they are aware of what is going to happen, while they watch the identified character walk straight into a trap. For instance, it makes the viewer want to scream out 'Don't do it!' It also makes the audience think whether the character will survive or not. The thriller aspect is extensively used in this movie where it is made quite predictable that the birds are the anti-social elements and are up to some harm. The audience is fully aware and is able to make quite accurate assumptions about the fate of Melanie.
It is amazing of how carefully Hitchcock builds the suspense in this movie. You watch the birds standing there, they do not move, they are just waiting. Even when you think they are dumb something tells you they are thinking. He makes you feel that the birds are analyzing your moves. The ending where they take a badly hurt Melanie to the hospital and a scene where the birds are shown flying away, is also a classic example of creating suspense and leaving it to the interpretation of the viewer.
Hence, though the movie’s prime focus is horror it also amalgamates other genres like romance, thriller and mystery.
The new concept of nature attacking provided a basis for future films like The Empire of the Ants, The Night of the Lepus, The Bees, The Birds II and many more.
Hitchcock once stated "Always make the audience suffer as much as possible" This quote would possibly be one of the greatest pieces of advice he could give.
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