Dead Birds poster & wallpaper

Henry Thomas, Nicki Aycox, Isaiah Washington

A group of Confederate soldiers hole up in an abandoned plantation after robbing a bank and find themselves at the mercy of supernatural forces.

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43% liked it

7,503 ratings

R, 91 min.

Directed by: Alex Turner

Release Date: January 1, 2004

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DVD Release Date: March 15, 2005

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Stats: 379 reviews

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Nicki Aycox as Annabelle in Dead Birds (2004) Muse Watson as Father in Dead Birds (2004) Creepy little fucker
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Flixster Reviews (379)

  • lewiskendell
    November 5, 2008
    lewiskendell
    Most of the recent horror movies that I've seen have been so dismal that Dead Birds gets a slightly favorable review just for not being awful, despite the fact that it's not particularly scary.

    The setting and time period were refreshing and the build-up and pacing of the movi...( read more)e were enjoyable. However, once the full story behind the haunted plantation is revealed, it was disappointingly generic. I only paid about $3 for Dead Birds, and it's worth that price and a hour and a half of the average horror fan's life.

    And yes, there was a dead bird in the movie, but what's with the name?
  • MalumMosIncrebresco
    October 29, 2008
    MalumMosIncrebresco
    Few days ago, a tasteful Flixster user told me that Dead Birds was somewhere described as "the most atmospheric horror movie".
    So obviously, I had to give it a go.

    Obviously, the above quote is an overstatement.
    But that does not mean that this isn't clearly one of the most eeri...( read more)e atmospheric ones to come out in the past few years (Asian horror aside).
    This movie can in fact raise some hairs in the back of your neck. You just need to create the right setting around you and you're set to go. This is clearly the best achievement of Dead Birds, along with the way the story unfolds until a particular moment.

    The acting is uncompromising for the most of it, and that's good enough for such a story, which is not (let's face it) that original, though they surpass this detail with the way they chose to pick it up. It's not a fast paced movie by any means, so you're very likely to be disappointed if you watch it with such expectations. But its pace is another great accomplishment of it. It starts off slow, stays on slow and you don't even find it incredibly fast when the whole thing blows up in your face.

    And that's where they mostly got it wrong, IMO.
    Simply put, there are some movies which should only have the single purpose to suggest, rather than to show. This is one of those, as most atmospheric ones are.
    It ends up showing too much, and telling too much, and that's its biggest flaw.

    There's also some awkwardness felt when you hear suposedly XIX century's characters saying things like "No shit!", I suppose.

    But you get over it quickly.

    If you're a fan of horror atmospheres, then you should definitely give this one a go, even if the last half of it does not match the first one in terms of build up.
  • creepfreak
    October 23, 2008
    creepfreak
    As some of you may already know, atmosphere is the biggest factor for me in any horror film. Dead Birds is drenched with atmosphere. It drowns in it! This is up there with some of the most atmospheric horror films ever made, and I loved every second of it. The atmosphere alone wa...( read more)s enough to send chills down my spine. Dead Birds is indeed one spooky ass ghost story. Eerie, breezing night winds that howl within the dark fields. Rumbling thunder from the rainy moonlit sky. Soft spoken whispers in every corner of a dark and creaky old farm house. Ghastly possessions and demonic-like children hiding under the beds. All of this is done at a calm and slow pace, but that's the beauty of it. That's it's charm. It's almost hypnotic, and in many ways relaxing, but spooky at the same time. Dead Birds is a horror movie to get cozy with, underneath the blanket, on a dark and stormy night. This movie isn't like any other horror film we're use to seeing these days. Dead Birds takes us back when horror films relied more on it's settings, with the dark and cold cinematography, as well as the eerie sounds inside the old dark house. It can almost pass for an old black and white horror film, in terms of it's style and way of storytelling. Dead Birds should be a lesson to all the crappy horror films these days. This is one good movie!

    Amazing story, as well as a perfect thought out back story. A simple, but subtle script. Solid performances from the whole cast. And like I mentioned before, beautiful cinematography! Plus, how can I forget...it's bloody and gory too. Dead Birds should have gotten more play than it did. It's a shame something like this goes unrecognized or even ignored by the horror community. We need more horror movies like this. Dead Birds is a real spooky treat! A solid ghost story.

    **For people looking for a fast paced horror movie(or something like SAW), look else where.**
  • kiriyamakazou
    December 16, 2007
    kiriyamakazou
    This is what happens when you buy films for £3 when drunk in Asda. However the freaky bastard ghost kids are pretty shit scary. It was slow, predictable and had a D list cast giving B list performances. So alright, but pretty cack.
  • organgrinder136
    November 3, 2007
    organgrinder136
    a totally average horror with a different take on the genre. this time it's some bank robbers (they're not confederate soldiers as it says on here... they may have been at one time but it doesn't actually state that anywhere in the film) holed up in an abandoned house where the e...( read more)x owner did some spells and brought some demons into the world rather than bring his dead wife back to life. i liked the actual creatures in it and it was sporadically creepy but at times pretty slow and drawn out. it's almost as if the director was trying to drag it out so he'd get an hour and a half runtime out of the thin plot
  • liquidstone14
    November 17, 2009
    liquidstone14
    Solid genre filmmaking, elevated by all-around strong acting and plenty of effective scares here and there. Even if it the script relies on one-too many horror cliches and expository dialogue, the end result nevertheless bathes in a pervasively creepy mood, something most glossy ...( read more)theatrical chillers cannot even manage.

    Be warned : some images will be hard to get out of your head.
  • fandangoforever
    November 10, 2009
    fandangoforever
    Except for a few poorly done special effects I really like this movie. Great characters, scary, and a Western to boot. Yee ha!
  • anoceandrowning
    October 29, 2009
    anoceandrowning
    Where are the dead birds, assholes!?!

    Fun ghost story almost completely devoid of the feathered friends mentioned in the title. No zombie birds. No murderous birds. No bird flu. Some really creepy images and a really cool creature.
  • jasontmartin3
    October 25, 2009
    jasontmartin3
    I watched this movie last night and I found the I dont like westerns much but I do like horror westerns alot!
  • dukeakasmudge
    October 20, 2009
    dukeakasmudge
    Thought this was gonna be another crappy horror flick but it was
    waaaaay better then I thought it was gonna be.VERY good

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Comments

  • chrismid259
    November 12, 2007
    chrismid259
    A terrible movie. Don't bother even thinking about watching this.
  • graphicopal
    July 13, 2007
    graphicopal
    I quite liked this one, although you only saw one dead bird in it, and it was for a second. The title was misleading.
    I actually rented it by accident, and then found it was really quite good!
  • natglc
    April 2, 2007
    natglc
    i liked it but i didnt get the end bit cn some 1 explain it to me plz
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Dead Birds Trivia

  • in the movie "Dead Birds" what dod they steel?  Answer »
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