The Birds

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The Birds

PG-13

1963

1h 59m

Mystery & Thriller

Drama

Horror

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

95%

Tomatometer

73 Reviews

83%

Popcornmeter

100,000+ Ratings

Melanie Daniels meets Mitch Brenner in a San Francisco pet store and decides to follow him home. She brings with her the gift of two love birds, and they strike up a romance. One day birds start attacking children at Mitch's sister's party. A huge assault starts on the town by attacking birds.

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Critics Consensus

Proving once again that build-up is the key to suspense, Alfred Hitchcock successfully turned birds into some of the most terrifying villains in horror history.

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Brendan Gill

The New Yorker

08/15/2022

Hard as it may be to believe of a Hitchcock, it doesn’t arouse suspense, which is, of course, what justifies and transforms the sadism that lies at the heart of every thriller. Here the sadism is all too nakedly, repellently present.

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Wendy Ide

The Times (UK)

08/01/2022

There’s a fair amount of beak-based eye trauma.

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James Powers

The Hollywood Reporter

03/28/2017

Hitchcock prolongs his prelude to horror for more than half the film, playing with audience suspense with comedy and romance while he sets his stage. The horror when it comes is a hair-raiser ...

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Max Allen

Horror Movie Talk

Dec 4

6/10

it is a fine movie that kept me engaged enough throughout most of it but not really anything special to me.

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Joshua Polanski

The Rapidian

Oct 29

His bird attacks invite an array of valid interpretations, and anyone can well garner new theories ready to be applied to the classic. That’s the genius of the film: they all work and none of them work at the same time.

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Christopher Lloyd

The Film Yap

Oct 27

4/5

After a lifetime of avoiding Hitchcock's goofiest film, your critic takes the plunge with the foul fowl and finds, despite some unconvincing 1960s special effects, the movie does take wing.

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Gabriel

Oct 2

Hitchcock is awesome!

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Eron F

07/24/2025

I watched this movie when I was a kid and took the opportunity to share it with my grandchildren on the big screen! To top it off we had dinner and a movie for our evening out.

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Daniela V

@dbarx24 Jul 9

The Birds demonstrates Alfred Hitchcock's extraordinary ability to create suspense from the ordinary. By transforming familiar animals into an unpredictable force of terror, the film creates a lingering sense of vulnerability that remains effective decades later. Its refusal to explain the attacks only strengthens the psychological impact, making the horror feel even more unsettling. It remains one of the defining works of suspense cinema.

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Michael P

@TheeMichael-jai Jun 4

Though it felt terribly long, it charms me just enough.

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Ben W

@Username618 Jun 2

Do seem to remember enjoying this, but forget how they spun it out for an hour and a half.

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Brighton N

@RT09904023 May 30

The Birds is an absolute classic and one of my favorite suspense films of all time. Every element comes together to make for a masterwork of the genre, and the only possible thing I could knock about is outdated filming technology, but that hardly matters to me. I'd recommend this film to everybody in the world (unless you have ornithophobia, that is).

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Alfred Hitchcock

Director

Rod Taylor

Mitch Brenner

Tippi Hedren

Melanie Daniels

Suzanne Pleshette

Annie Hayworth

Jessica Tandy

Lydia Brenner

Veronica Cartwright

Cathy Brenner

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Synopsis

Melanie Daniels meets Mitch Brenner in a San Francisco pet store and decides to follow him home. She brings with her the gift of two love birds, and they strike up a romance. One day birds start attacking children at Mitch's sister's party. A huge assault starts on the town by attacking birds.

Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Producer: Alfred Hitchcock
Screenwriter: Evan Hunter, Daphne Du Maurier
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Production Co: Universal Pictures, Alfred J. Hitchcock Productions
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Mystery & Thriller, Drama, Horror
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Mar 28, 1963, Wide
Rerelease Date (Theaters): Oct 22, 2023
Release Date (Streaming): Oct 1, 2014
Runtime: 1h 59m
Sound Mix: Mono
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.85:1)

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