Die Vögel - Attack from Above

Any film made with rampaging birds is bound to be immediately compared with the Alfred Hitchcock classic 'The Birds', especially if it has the hero of that film, Rod Taylor, playing a cameo role. Now this was Rod's pen ultimate movie appearance at 76, and he probably only accepted it for a laugh, but he does lend it some heavyweight clout, and is the main reason I bought it on DVD. Having said that, it's light on plot, but considering the minuscule budget compared with what Hitchcock would have had, it's quite well done, of course they had the added benefit of CGI, which of course Alfred didn't. From the extras I learnt that they had 11 trained ravens to work with, plus a couple of mechanical ones, and of course the CGI effects. Unlike 'The Birds' at least there's a reason given for the birds behavior, even if implausible, and the ending is equally anti climactic, still, as I say, anything with Rod Taylor in the cast can't be all bad, and it's better than a lot of stuff being churned out!

Animal attack horror movies truly are a dime a dozen, and sometimes they can get extremely cheesy and crummy, often knowingly so, and sometimes they really aren't so bad. "Kaw" may overall be routine and unremarkable, but it handles its outlandish premise better than one would think, and refrains from doing a lot of winking at its audience. The special effects are never so awful that they just take you right out of the movie, either. Granted, the characters are clichés, and the movie isn't without silly moments, but it does deliver some decent thrills for undemanding B movie fans. Hell, it even works in a subplot about strained relationships between the "English" and the local Mennonites that fortunately doesn't detract too much from the basic storyline. The story, working as one big homage to the Hitchcock classic "The Birds", sees a ton of ravens literally tearing into the citizens of a small town; nobody can figure out why this is going on nor can they think of what to do about the situation. The actors in the lead roles are likable and reliable as always: Sean Patrick Flanery as local sheriff Wayne, who was actually about to leave his job, and Stephen McHattie as reformed drunk / school bus driver Clyde, who's one of the first to realize that the birds are going crazy. The supporting cast is capable if rather nondescript, but it is an absolute joy to see Wendy Lyon, the lead of "Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II" as the dispatcher, and the presence of veteran actor Rod Taylor, who'd actually starred in "The Birds", as the local doctor, is extremely welcome. Filmed on location in Ontario, the movie has an appropriately gloomy look about it, and director Sheldon Wilson keeps it moving forward at an adequate pace. The most striking scene has the sheriff's wife (Kristin Booth) stuck in a well with an animal carcass. The ravens are portrayed by a combination of well trained avians and a generous dose of digital effects. There are some twists that are amusing to say the least, such as the ravens manipulating rocks in order to break glass. The ending falls short of really being satisfying, though, and the inclusion of a last-second jump scare is completely unnecessary and annoying. It's understandable how some viewers could find this tiresome, so just judge for yourself should you decide to watch. Five out of 10.

This is a reworking of Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds". And, this is a great example of why I prefer classic movies. The Birds started out developing the characters. You understood them, and even to care for them. Gradually Hitchcock built up the suspense and he anticipated the audience reactions. The Birds had real characters, complete with quirks, flaws, problems, emotions and feelings. You got to really know the citizens and visitors of Bodega Bay. It also had a plot, (imagine that), genuine suspense, atmosphere, humor, a riveting score and masterful Hitch touches throughout. It wasn't about special effects, gore and shock, although he incorporated that into The Birds, it is not what made the film work.

Kaw isn't an awful film, but it lacks just about everything I mentioned above. It lacks a heart and soul, and especially character development. There are no intriguing characters. It's obvious and predictable. There isn't much suspense if you know what's going to happen. It's watchable, I wasn't bored. Best of all, it helped me appreciate the classics even more. Watch this, then The Birds. You'll see what makes a film great, rather than just merely passable.

I first saw this in 2007 on a dvd which I own. Revisited it recently cos my nephew wanted to c a "crow" horror film.

Agree it's a blatant rip off of The Birds but they compensated by taking the lead actor Rod Taylor from The Birds into this film. In the classic there is never an explanation as to why the birds go full rampage but this film compensated by giving a medical explanation. The classic one had some solid tension n suspense n Hitchcock turned the docile birds into some of the most terrifying villains. This film is devoid of tension n character build up but has some nasty flesh n brains being pecked by infected but intelligent ravens.

I don't feel like wasting much of my time writing a long, in-depth review on a film such as Kaw, a Sci-Fi Original Movie, so let me get straight to the details here: This film is about a pack rabid birds (Supposedly just ravens, but it's pretty obvious that they have a mixture of ravens and crows in the there) that terrorize a town for a reason not revealed until near the end, and most of the film is spent following several people who meet up in the end, simply running from the creatures. It's really as simple and ridiculous as that.

But, I don't think I've enjoyed a Sci-Fi movie as much as Kaw since the should-be cult-classic Alien Apocalypse (Starring Bruce Campbell) or the amazingly bad Nature Unleashed: Tornado. Yes, it has its mass of flaws including very mediocre CGI (a commonface among Sci-Fi movies), an uninteresting and generic plot/story, and an extremely lame, clichéd ending for the genre. But... I will go as far as to say the acting was pretty good/mediocre, but never laughably bad; an oddity with Sci-Fi movies. Same thing goes with the diologue which proved to be believable and somewhat interesting on occasion.

Even though the movie doesn't have any 'scary' scenes (as expected), I was surprised to find that it did, however, have a few slightly intense moments here and there that had me creep towards my TV, as well as a good amount of blood and gore that was seemingly well-done.

Overall, Kaw is a decent film for the Sci-Fi channel. Usually these movies end up being complete unbearable disasters, but this one was, to some extent, entertaining; I enjoyed watching this on my Saturday night where I didn't have much else to do, and I'd say it was worth watching. My Sci-Fi Channel Original Picture score for Kaw makes an easy 7/10, but my real score is shown above.