Starring: Michael Shannon, Henry Thomas, Patrick Fugit, Nicki Aycox, Mark Boone Junior, Isaiah Washington

Director: Alex Turner
Released: 2004

Mood: If you enjoy those amusement park haunted houses where people jump out at you and you want a Western that delivers the same thrill.

I didn’t expect a lot from Dead Birds and I ended up pleasantly surprised – which is a bigger compliment than usual, since I watched this movie in the same week that I had my mind blown by The Burrowers.

Dead Birds does a lot with a smaller budget, and is an impressive first feature film for director Alex Turner. It’s effective as both a horror movie and a Western, even with its flaws. This one is worth a watch for anyone else spending spooky season consuming scary movies from under the safety of a blanket.

Dead Birds begins in Alabama, with a splattery-violent bank robbery by a gang of Confederate deserters. They get away with a huge stash of Union gold coins, fleeing for Mexico. But a storm’s coming and they need a place to hole up overnight. What better hideout than an abandoned mansion?

As they approach the mansion through a misty field of dead corn, they encounter a scarecrow that looks more like a crucified human, and they shoot a fast-moving creature that looks like a bag of skin and teeth and twisted bone. They see a bunch of dead birds on the ground around the entrance. Yet still, they go inside.

Not everyone in this posse is happy with the leadership of William (Henry Thomas). Clyde (Michael Shannon) and Joseph (Mark Boone Junior) think they ought to reduce the party size, and increase their share of the gold. Meanwhile, Sam (Mark Boone Junior) was shot in the robbery and is getting worse, and Annabelle (Nicki Aycox) and Todd (Isaiah Washington) are seeing terrifying things that the others can’t see.

And yet, they all keep splitting up.

What the hell are these creatures? Is anybody going to survive? Let’s just say that if you need a happy ending, you should skip this particular haunted mansion ride.

Dead Birds uses excellent direction, (mostly) solid acting, lots of blood, and a great score to balance what it lacks in pacing and effects.

The plot strategically weaves popular tropes from both Western and Horror movies, including an outlaw gang escaping a heist, treachery among the thieves, an abandoned mansion, creepy child sounds, and an old curse revived by meddling in magic.

The story is nothing astoundingly creative or fresh, but there’s a reason tropes are tropes – THEY WORK. Dead Birds doesn’t have to spend time helping you get to know these characters, because you already know them. And you see an abandoned mansion with atmospheric music playing, and you instantly know they shouldn’t go in there.

As a result, you’re constantly on edge. You’re a prime candidate for the jump scares, so even if the creatures and makeup feel like you’ve seen them in some form before, you’re still startled.

Henry Thomas doesn’t feel particularly era-authentic as William, and his delivery is kinda flat. At times the music does more heavy lifting than the people or pacing, and it happens the most during his scenes. But everyone else in Dead Birds is strong in their roles, especially Michael Shannon as the duplicitous Clyde.

Some reviewers have also criticized the ending, but I enjoyed it immensely because it felt like the horror was about to start all over again in a doomed loop.

It’s not a movie I’d put on over and over again, but I also have an extreme physical reaction to being startled. Plus, I can’t get over a weak lead performance. Still, I’d give it a solid B- among other horror Westerns I’ve seen so far.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

With that said, Dead Birds left me with several questions:

• Why were all the birds dead but the dog remains unaffected?
• What kind of magic was the spell book meant to be? In my extremely limited white-girl understanding of Hoodoo, which is what the context seems to imply, I’m pretty sure there’s no human sacrifice or Necronomicon-style books depicting rituals for reanimation…
• Why do some of the cursed humans turn into naked, deformed skin-bags that run on all fours while others remain like clothed children?
• Where TF did Todd go?!

Want to chat about it? Join us in my Western group.