Produced on a paltry budget of only $10,000 by independent filmmaker James Nguyen, this
Alfred Hitchcock-inspired romantic horror film saw limited release in October of 2008
before becoming a cult-hit on home video.
The extremely poorly made 92-minute feature begins with a long and boring credits sequence
that embarrassingly even includes a spelling mistake.
The plot, which almost appears to have been filmed in-sequence, features an awkward Alan
Bagh and the attractive Whitney Moore who lead a group of survivors during an unexplained
deadly bird invasion outside of San Jose, CA.
Filmed with jerky follow-pans, the unrated movie breaks every fundamental rule of filmmaking,
with no regard for basic continuity.
Afraid of using L-cuts, editor Kim Chow sticks only to vanilla edits, that are so poorly
timed, you could drive a double-decker bus through them: only extenuating the abysmal
performances, and unrealistic behavior by the undeveloped cast.
Obviously recorded from a low-quality, onboard mic, this movie seriously features the worst
audio I've heard in my entire life... nearly every scene includes random pockets of silence,
inaudible dialogue, abrupt changes in room tone: all of it backed by a soundtrack that
sounds like a rejected MIDI file from the 1980's.
Nguyen meanwhile is seemingly obsessed with photographing a rented Ford Mustang - in footage
that has lighting worse than an iPhone.
The story has no grasp on reality, the progression of nonsensical events feels like it was written
by a prepubescent boy who just found three-feet of dolly track, and needlessly included the
repeating camera move throughout.
Still-frames and pointless dissolves bookend every sequence, many of which are not only
head-shaking awful, but entirely redundant, repeating many images, like that of a bird
being shot out of the sky, several times over.
A bizarrely irrelevant eco-friendly message that cautions about global warming is bluntly
forced into the stupid plot late, as if to explain away the presence of the extremely
fake-looking flying creatures.
Not appearing until over 45-minutes in, the birds are just plastered over the scenery
without so much as basic motion-tracking, ensuring the laughable effects prevent any
possibility of tension or realism.
Even the end-credits are mostly fake, as Nguyen thought adding a bunch of made-up people would
make the film look more professional.
The only thing scary in this so-called horror film is that it somehow exists at all.
With no purpose, reasoning, or resolution - this badly paced movie is one you regret
watching immediately...
but it's somehow endearing for how honest and terrible it is, you almost feel bad for
the folks involved.
The incompetent crew clearly had good intentions, but didn't know the first damn thing about
making a movie... at least Ms. Moore is hot in a bikini though, right?
"Birdemic: Shock And Terror", "So inexcusably bad, it's impressive."
Well those are my harsh words, now lets see what you had to say about this film in the
YouTube comments.
Let's bring in the rate-o-matic... which I suppose will be more like a "hate-o-matic"
tonight, with our scores for "Birdemic: Shock And Terror" -- two ONES.
Lamenting over the awkward acting, but citing the laughable effects as untentionally entertaining,
you thought this movie was GARBAGE.
This is far too boring to truly qualify as "so bad its good" fare, so I agree, I rate
it as GARBAGE as well.