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Zombie 5: Killing Birds
Media Blasters // Unrated // August 19, 2003
List Price: $24.95 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie
Anyone who's ever wandered through a video store has surely noticed the proliferation of direct-to-video sequels which clog stores shelves. (And isn't Andrew Stevens involved with most of them?) The number of Roman numerals on the average video store shelf could make one think that they'd traveled back through time. Typically, these films are true sequels and part of a series. But, there are times when a fake name will be slapped onto a film to make the unsuspecting public think that it's a sequel. The recently reviewed Demons III: The Ogre is a good example of this, as is Zombie 5: Killing Birds, a film which is actually known as simply Killing Birds, and shouldn't be confused with the other Zombie films.
Killing Birds is one of the most confusing and nonsensical movies ever made. The film opens with a Vietnam vet coming home to find that his wife has taken on a lover during his absence. (I know that he's a Vietnam vet because the DVD box said so.) The vet (whose face we never see) then kills his wife, her lover, and his wife's parents. But, he spares a baby. (And the friendly police who arrest him even let him hug the baby...because that happens.) The carnage is made worse as the murderer has one of his eyes plucked out by one of the birds which his wife kept as a pet.
The story then leaps ahead to the mid 80s. Steve (Timothy W. Watts) gets a grant to lead an expedition to find a rare woodpecker. He takes along journalist Anne (Lara Wendel), several other scientists, and a park ranger into the swamps of Louisiana. Their first stop on the trip is at the home of Dr. Fred Brown (Robert Vaughn), an expert on birds, who supplies them with a map to a prime location to find the woodpecker. As this group of seven seemingly borderline retarded people, all of whom hate each other, go into the swamp, they find an abandoned house, and suddenly the search for the woodpecker is forgotten, and they decide that they must search the house and then spend the night. (We recognize the house as the location of the murders from the film's opening.) As the night wears on, a zombie (I think) attacks the group killing them one-by-one.
If that plot synopsis doesn't sum up just how bad Killing Birds is, that I don't know what will. The film's "story" is all over the place and never makes any cohesive sense. Even compared to other Italian horror films, which rarely have the best plots, Killing Birds is especially confusing. How does the search for a bird turn into a night of terror? We learn who the vet at the beginning is, but who's the zombie? Why does everyone in this film speak so strangely? The film's ending makes no sense whatsoever, which makes it the fitting capper to this lousy film. Each scene looks as if the rehearsals had been filmed and declared good enough. The credits state that "Claude Milliken" directed this stinker, but that's actually a pseudonym for Claudio Lattanzi and Joe D'Amato (Aristide Massaccessi). D'Amato made a career proving that he had no idea how to direct a film, and he doesn't disappoint here, as the pace is almost non-existent and there are a lot of shots of the house, lest we forget where the film is taking place. Zombie 5: Killing Birds does indeed include a zombie and it's suggested that birds are going to kill someone, but the film offers little else.
Video
Zombie 5: Killing Birds comes to DVD from Shriek Show. The film has been letterboxed at 1.85:1 and the transfer is enhanced for 16 x 9 TVs. The image is sharp and clear, but there are indications that noise reduction was used to minimize the grain on the image. The colors are good, but some scenes are slightly washed out. There are some occasional defects on the source print, but there are mostly small black specs. The framing appears to be accurate, and there are only marginal traces of artifacting.
Audio
Shriek Show states that the DVD carries a Dolby Digital mono audio track, but it was certainly coming through in stereo on my system. However, the track is flawed as the audio fluctuates wildly. This may have been a defect with the source material, as it seems that only every third actor was recorded. Voices are very muffled and it's often difficult to make out what people are saying. This is made worse by the loud volume of the music, meaning that a great deal of adjusting must occur. The track also contains audible hissing and popping.
Extras
The disc features an 11-minute interview with star Robert Vaughn. He only talks about Killing Birds for about two minutes and then spends the remainder of the interview giving an overview of his career, most notably his work in genre films. There is a brief still gallery which features examples of posters and publicity art for the film. The theatrical trailer is included here, letterboxed at 1.85:1, as well as bonus trailers.
In a genre where bad movies abound, Zombie 5: Killing Birds is one of the worse. It doesn't even offer the usual gore or nudity which often draws fans to these films. What we do get is a bird-brained plot that never makes any sense, coupled with incredibly slow pacing. This one isn't worth leaving the nest for.
Anyone who's ever wandered through a video store has surely noticed the proliferation of direct-to-video sequels which clog stores shelves. (And isn't Andrew Stevens involved with most of them?) The number of Roman numerals on the average video store shelf could make one think that they'd traveled back through time. Typically, these films are true sequels and part of a series. But, there are times when a fake name will be slapped onto a film to make the unsuspecting public think that it's a sequel. The recently reviewed Demons III: The Ogre is a good example of this, as is Zombie 5: Killing Birds, a film which is actually known as simply Killing Birds, and shouldn't be confused with the other Zombie films.
Killing Birds is one of the most confusing and nonsensical movies ever made. The film opens with a Vietnam vet coming home to find that his wife has taken on a lover during his absence. (I know that he's a Vietnam vet because the DVD box said so.) The vet (whose face we never see) then kills his wife, her lover, and his wife's parents. But, he spares a baby. (And the friendly police who arrest him even let him hug the baby...because that happens.) The carnage is made worse as the murderer has one of his eyes plucked out by one of the birds which his wife kept as a pet.
The story then leaps ahead to the mid 80s. Steve (Timothy W. Watts) gets a grant to lead an expedition to find a rare woodpecker. He takes along journalist Anne (Lara Wendel), several other scientists, and a park ranger into the swamps of Louisiana. Their first stop on the trip is at the home of Dr. Fred Brown (Robert Vaughn), an expert on birds, who supplies them with a map to a prime location to find the woodpecker. As this group of seven seemingly borderline retarded people, all of whom hate each other, go into the swamp, they find an abandoned house, and suddenly the search for the woodpecker is forgotten, and they decide that they must search the house and then spend the night. (We recognize the house as the location of the murders from the film's opening.) As the night wears on, a zombie (I think) attacks the group killing them one-by-one.
If that plot synopsis doesn't sum up just how bad Killing Birds is, that I don't know what will. The film's "story" is all over the place and never makes any cohesive sense. Even compared to other Italian horror films, which rarely have the best plots, Killing Birds is especially confusing. How does the search for a bird turn into a night of terror? We learn who the vet at the beginning is, but who's the zombie? Why does everyone in this film speak so strangely? The film's ending makes no sense whatsoever, which makes it the fitting capper to this lousy film. Each scene looks as if the rehearsals had been filmed and declared good enough. The credits state that "Claude Milliken" directed this stinker, but that's actually a pseudonym for Claudio Lattanzi and Joe D'Amato (Aristide Massaccessi). D'Amato made a career proving that he had no idea how to direct a film, and he doesn't disappoint here, as the pace is almost non-existent and there are a lot of shots of the house, lest we forget where the film is taking place. Zombie 5: Killing Birds does indeed include a zombie and it's suggested that birds are going to kill someone, but the film offers little else.
Video
Zombie 5: Killing Birds comes to DVD from Shriek Show. The film has been letterboxed at 1.85:1 and the transfer is enhanced for 16 x 9 TVs. The image is sharp and clear, but there are indications that noise reduction was used to minimize the grain on the image. The colors are good, but some scenes are slightly washed out. There are some occasional defects on the source print, but there are mostly small black specs. The framing appears to be accurate, and there are only marginal traces of artifacting.
Audio
Shriek Show states that the DVD carries a Dolby Digital mono audio track, but it was certainly coming through in stereo on my system. However, the track is flawed as the audio fluctuates wildly. This may have been a defect with the source material, as it seems that only every third actor was recorded. Voices are very muffled and it's often difficult to make out what people are saying. This is made worse by the loud volume of the music, meaning that a great deal of adjusting must occur. The track also contains audible hissing and popping.
Extras
The disc features an 11-minute interview with star Robert Vaughn. He only talks about Killing Birds for about two minutes and then spends the remainder of the interview giving an overview of his career, most notably his work in genre films. There is a brief still gallery which features examples of posters and publicity art for the film. The theatrical trailer is included here, letterboxed at 1.85:1, as well as bonus trailers.
In a genre where bad movies abound, Zombie 5: Killing Birds is one of the worse. It doesn't even offer the usual gore or nudity which often draws fans to these films. What we do get is a bird-brained plot that never makes any sense, coupled with incredibly slow pacing. This one isn't worth leaving the nest for.
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