RipDelight
This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.
mraculeated
The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.
Cassandra
Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.
Scott LeBrun
Under developed, underwhelming addition to the Italian "Zombi" horror series tells another self- contained story; you don't need to see previous entries before seeing this one. The tale sees a Vietnam veteran return home to slaughter his loved ones, before the many hawks on their property attack him. Many years later, a bunch of dumb chump college students go in search of an elusive woodpecker species, and come upon this old abode, which is now a house of horrors.Not much could be done to save this movie, not even a guest star role for 'Man from U.N.C.L.E." star Robert Vaughn, who plays a one-eyed old bird expert. The young cast is definitely attractive but otherwise nondescript. You don't really care for their characters, and don't mind seeing them knocked off. The script by Daniele Stroppa is one of those deals where it's short on sense, and long on nonsense. It doesn't bother giving you a lot of details or exposition, and actually waits until the dying minutes of the movie to pay off Vaughns' character. The plethora of feathered co-stars, however, never does amount to much. Also, while "Killing Birds" does feature zombies, there aren't that many of them. It isn't until around the one hour mark that this even becomes somewhat interesting / entertaining. The gore effects are quite grisly and enjoyable. The music score by Carlo Maria Cordio is also good. Directing credit goes to Claudio Lattanzi. Joe D'Amato also directed & produced, without credit, and served as cinematographer under a pseudonym.Five out of 10.
BA_Harrison
Good luck in trying to make sense of this one: it's a total mess, even by '80s Italian horror movie standards. The free-wheeling, nonsensical plot goes something like this:Vietnam vet Fred Brown (Robert Vaughn) returns home to Louisiana to find his wife in bed with another man; after killing the adulterous couple, and his in-laws, Fred disposes of the bodies, cleans up the scene, and frees the family's pet birds, after which he is attacked by a hawk, which claws out his eyes.Years later, the blind ex-soldier's crime somehow remains undiscovered, and he now spends his time at home studying bird song. Hoping to locate a rare species of woodpecker, a group of Louisiana college students pay the old man a visit, and, following his advice, they set out for the swamps. After stumbling across a decomposing body in a car (which they opt to ignore), they finally stumble upon the old, deserted house where Brown's murder spree took place and decide to spend the night, firing up a generator in the basement.During the night, the friends experience a series of strange, inexplicable occurrences, including grisly hallucinations, after which they are attacked by several zombies and a supernatural force (which pulls one unfortunate victim into the gears of the generator). In the morning, the two remaining survivors escape the house, meeting Brown as they leave. The blind man enters the dilapidated property, where he is attacked by a flock of birds. The End.None of this follows any kind of logic, there's no explanation for the supernatural goings on, the violence is bloody but unconvincing, and the ending incredibly weak. Although not an official part of the Zombie series, it's easy to see why Killing Birds was given the alternative title of Zombie 5: it's every bit as random, badly acted and shoddily directed as Zombie 3 and Zombie 4—unfortunately, it's also a lot more boring.
geminiredblue
First thing I'd like to mention about KILLING BIRDS is the misleading title. The version I have is called ZOMBIE 5: KILLING BIRDS. I've got a question for the filmmakers. Where are the zombies that are promised in the title? Where are the birds that kill, for that matter? Granted, there are birds of prey "that technically kill" in the movie. But they don't kill any character in the course of the film. The worst they do is blind a person and flock around. Mind you, there is killing and there are birds, but they aren't one and the same. The official title maybe should have been KILLING; BIRDS. After Hitchcock's monumental 1963 film, as far as I'm concerned, no other killer bird movie has ever come close to being scary. Though the eerie crow scenes in RESIDENT EVIL EXTINCTION come close. The story starts in the late 60s, a Vietnam vet returns to his house in the marshes of Louisiana to find his wife sleeping with another man. Before you can say HALLOWEEN rip-off, he kills them both as well as his mother and father, who appear out of nowhere, carrying his baby boy. Soon after, his pet birds attack and peck out his eyes. Why? We don't know and never will. Once again, this is Euro-trash of a low standard where bad acting abounds, the plot is nonexistent, and gore flows. The first thing that must get cut are annoying little details that thoughtful viewers would question. Flash forward about twenty years and we meet a young man named Steve (you guessed it, he's the baby all grown up now.) He's at college and his thesis has just gotten approved. Now, Steve along with a group of other college students set out to find a rare wood pecker. Along the way, they are joined by a park ranger. Eventually, they stop at a house owned by a blind bird watcher (haha!) played by Robert Vaughn... yes, THE Robert Vaughn! (Did it for the moolah?) Finally, after his big scene, which goes absolutely nowhere (much like the rest of the film) the group winds up in the marshes and stumbles across an old house. Amazing, the house looks remarkably like the same one from twenty years ago. Guess what happens next? They hold up for the night as weird Poltergeist-like stuff happens. Boards are nailed up, an ancient generator turns homicidal, and much much more happens (using the word loosely.) Finally, after the disposable characters are eliminated by a "zombie" or two, we're down to Steve and a student reporter named Anne. Robert Vaughn appears out of nowhere and claims that "he's the one they're after." The young couple escapes and we hear Vaughn screaming. THE END. Scratching my head afterwards, all I can think is: Huh, what just happened? In truth, not a whole lot! The zombie is simply a slow-moving, back-lit guy because make-up costs too much I guess. Half of the time, we don't even see a monster at all. Things pop up or start on their own and characters die. There's one scene where the group is trying to get a van to start and one character is attacked by a hand that emerges from the fog. This scene seems to be ripping off Fulci's phenomenally better CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD. No explanation is really given as to what causes the monsters, or apparitions, or "zombies" to attack. Out of revenge, or pure evil? The filmmakers obviously don't care enough to explain, so neither should we care enough to see it. Along with BURIAL GROUND, NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIES, and ZOMBIE 4, this qualifies as one of the worst zombie flicks ever made. As an unintentional comedy however, it's great! So make popcorn and invite your funniest friends over for a night of sheer, utter, uncontrollable........ laughter!
OnePlusOne
...but my only fear was that it would never end.I love eurohorror, and I adore zombie time wasters like Tombs of The Blind Dead, La Notti Del Terrore and Lucio Fulci's zombie flicks. But this...this... I don't know how to write this so it won't end up one of those reviews where you end up wanting to watch the film just because the reviewer thought it was so enormously bad. But trust me. This one is bad-bad not entertaining-bad. Partly because it holds no hints of irony, and is technically well done enough not to end up cheesy. In the end it's simply mind numbingly dull. I won't go into details on the story seeing as so many has already commented on it, suffice to say it's no understatement that it holds no immediate logic. And as far as zombies goes, they only appear in the last half an hour, which by the way seem to go on for ever and ever, due to the fact of unbelievable slow pacing. Also much of the time scenes repeat upon themselves, even the death scenes, but mostly the film grinds to a halt because the actors(if you can call them that) only stand around looking at each other or the surroundings for minutes and minutes on end. The only reason I sat through Zombie 5 - Killing Birds was because I was waiting for the zombie birds, which I naively enough thought would appear at least once. But even there I was disappointed. I never thought I would say this, but you are better of re-watching Zombi 3. At least that one boasts some proper zombie birds and elementary gore.
