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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Dead Birds (2004)

Dead Birds (2004)

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Released 11-May-2005
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Details At A Glance

General		Extras
Category	Horror	Main Menu Audio & Animation Audio Commentary-Alex Turner (Director) Audio Commentary-Cast And Crew Theatrical Trailer Deleted Scenes-5, With Optional Director's Commentary Featurette-Making Of
Rating
Year Of Production	2004
Running Time	87:46
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (50:39)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu	Cast & Crew
Region Coding	2,4,5	Directed By	Alex Turner
Studio Distributor	Silver Nitrate Pict Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	Henry Thomas Nicki Lynn Aycox Isaiah Washington Michael Shannon Patrick Fugit Mark Boone Junior Muse Watson
Case	?	Starring
RPI	$39.95	Music	Peter Lopez

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No	Miscellaneous
Subtitles	English Italian Spanish Dutch Arabic Bulgarian Croatian Czech Danish Finnish Greek Hindi Hungarian Norwegian Polish Portuguese Romanian Slovenian Swedish Turkish English Audio Commentary Italian Audio Commentary Spanish Audio Commentary Dutch Audio Commentary English Audio Commentary Italian Audio Commentary Spanish Audio Commentary Dutch Audio Commentary	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    Dead Birds is the first feature film from Director Alex Turner and I have to say it isn't a bad effort either.

    The year is 1863 and the location is Fairhope, Alabama. The opening scene from Dead Birds resembles a period drama set during the American Civil War, with Confederate soldiers riding their horses in to town. It is surely one of the more unusual settings for a horror movie, but it doesn't take long for the viewer to realise that this is a horror movie and not Gone With The Wind.

    Whilst the Confederate soldiers are banking their gold, the bank is held up by a team of renegades and deserters. The ensuing violence results in the slashing of so many throats and the gushing of so much blood that I feared Dead Birds would degenerate into a "slash and gore flick". Fortunately this was not the case and the movie proved to be quite suspenseful and well constructed, even if the plot wasn't exactly original (with the exception of the period setting).

    With gold in hand the renegades make their way to a deserted mansion located deep within a corn field. It is here that the tension mounts within the group as their mistrust of each other gradually builds over the fate of the gold. Meanwhile the supernatural forces that dwell within the mansion begin to reveal themselves and the awful truth that they hide.

    The opening credits were created by a company called D-Kitchen and they are quite spectacular, consisting of a series of macro shots accompanied by haunting music and spectre like text. In fact, if I had to nominate my favourite part of the movie it would be the opening credits - I'm not saying the movie is bad, I'm just saying the credits look good.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    The video transfer of this movie is very good with only a few minor blemishes.

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    As with most horror films the majority of the movie is filmed in dark conditions to enhance the threat of pending doom for the cast members. Thankfully this transfer has a very sharp image and good shadow detail. There were however a couple of particularly dark scenes that did contain a degree of grain (the two soldiers standing in the doorway at 5:14 and the river crossing at 10:17).

    The colour palette for Dead Birds consists predominately of greys and browns which is appropriate for the period setting and the bleak interiors of the mansion. Of course, being a horror movie, there are plenty of opportunities to show a splash of red.

    The quality of the transfer is highlighted by the absence of MPEG artefacts and film-to-video artefacts (I did not notice any aliasing). I did however notice some minor film artefacts during a few scenes (including the opening credits) but they were not intrusive.

    There are no less than nineteen foreign language subtitles on this DVD. In addition to the English subtitles I sampled both of the English Audio Commentary streams (the Director and the Cast & Crew). All three subtitle streams are clearly displayed and accurately portray what is being spoken.

    This is an RSDL disc, with the layer change taking place at 50:39. The layer change occurred between scenes and wasn't too disruptive.

*Video Ratings Summary*
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

This is an excellent sound track with just one problem (read on).

There are five audio tracks on this DVD; English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s), Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s), Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) and two English Audio Commentary tracks in Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s). I listened to the default English Dolby Digital 5.1 track and sampled both English Audio Commentaries (the Director's comments and the Cast & Crew's comments).

This is an awesome sound track that totally encapsulates the viewer with a sense of dread. My only concern with the audio transfer is that the dialogue was little strained and hard to hear at times, like when William (Henry Thomas) and Annabelle (Nicki Aycox) are talking in bed at 30:16. Even after increasing the volume a little I had to turn on the English subtitles for this particular scene.

I did not notice any audio sync problems with this DVD.

Peter Lopez provides a musical score that creates a creepy ambiance throughout the movie.

The surround channels are used extensively to produce a sound stage that envelops the viewer. Examples of this are the insect noises in the forest at 7:21 and the storm at 71:17. Directional cues are effectively used throughout the film with some of the memorable ones being the horses moving left to right at 10:00, the rattling door knob at 18:17 and voices at 20:02.

The subwoofer is used to great effect without drawing attention to itself.

*Audio Ratings Summary*
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

The DVD contains a surprising number of extras, though their quality is questionable at times.

Theatrical Trailer (1:56)

This is a high quality trailer that is in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, but it is not 16x9 enhanced.

Deleted Scenes

There are five deleted scenes and they can be played with or without Director Alex Turner commentating. The deleted scenes are of poor quality and are more like extended scenes than deleted scenes. They are presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and are not 16x9 enhanced.

Making Dead Birds (27:12)

This documentary is in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and is of good quality. The content is rather boring in places though it does explain how you can make a movie with historically correct sets and costumes for a mere 1.5 million dollars.

Director's Commentary

Where were the birds? The movie is called Dead Birds (plural), but there is only one dead bird in the film. The answer can be found here.

Cast and Crew Commentary

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

4 Other Trailers featuring Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, The Grudge and Wake of Death.

The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;

Nothing.

Summary

Dead Birds is a good first time effort by Director Alex Turner. The video transfer is very good and the audio transfer is near reference quality, with hard to hear dialogue being the only problem.

Horror movies with a western theme are rare and I'm not aware of any that are set during the American Civil War, so Dead Birds is quite unique from that perspective. Although the plot is far from memorable this DVD is worth a look if you enjoy horror movies.

The extras shed some light on how Dead Birds was created, with the Director's Commentary and the Making Dead Birds documentary being the highlight.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Review Equipment
DVD	Pioneer DV-533K, using Component output
Display	InFocus Screenplay 7200 with ScreenTechnics 100" (16x9) screen. This display device has not been calibrated. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio Decoder	Built in to Amplifier. This audio decoder/receiver has not been calibrated.
Amplification	Denon AVC -A11SR
Speakers	Jamo D6PEX wall mounted Speakers and Powered Sub (7.1)

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