Sean Cain’s Terror Birds fails to terrify audiences
Terror Birds is the latest addition to the long list of independent, on-demand horror films being released in recent years. Directed by Sean Cain, the movie is slated for a release on Tuesday. With a relatively inexperienced cast, the horror flick focuses on the experiences of Maddy Stern, played by actress Jessica Lee Keller.
Following her father’s week-long disappearance during a bird-watching trip, Maddy decides to embark on a trip in the Texan wilderness to find him. Despite her insistence on conducting the search by herself, Maddy is accompanied by her roommate, Paige. Matters are only made worse when Paige invites Maddy’s former love interest Justin, his current girlfriend Taylor and his best friend Brett on the excursion. After following different hints throughout the forest, the group is ultimately led to a wealthy scientist’s private aviary, where they discover a pair of predatory birds believed to have been extinct for centuries. The five, after realizing the cause of Maddy’s father’s death and disappearance, are ultimately forced to escape the clutches of the scientist and his terror birds.
The film is yet another flop in the indie horror movie scene. With countless clichés and innumerable accounts of flawed acting, Terror Birds reaffirms the heinous reputation that many independent horror films carry. A number of instances exemplify the logical errors of which the filmmakers failed to take notice. For example, in one scene, Maddy and Justin attempt to flee from the terror birds by driving off in a van with an open trunk. About a minute later, it becomes devastatingly evident to the viewer that the van’s trunk somehow closed within the matter of seconds since the two characters entered the front of the vehicle. What is even more appalling is that the cast lacks general consistency and skill to convey their roles. Lindsey Sporrer, who plays Taylor, miserably fails at even portraying the self-absorbed blond stereotype that is not uncommon in the average horror flick.
It is very important to note, however, that the film’s most important factors were butchered by horrendous CGI effects and upsettingly terrible animation and editing. Despite the filmmakers’ efforts, the terror birds failed to integrate with the real-life setting of the film, making the birds look almost as if they were placed from a low-quality animation studio and plastered into the Texan landscape.
Moreover, the editing prevented the most important feature of horror movies, the gore factor, from even being realistic or remotely believable. Production and make-up design failed miserably in creating blood splatters and presenting wounds on characters, thereby further degrading the nature of the film. The effects in Terror Birds will most likely remind viewers of the fake blood and gauze they purchased from Party City for their costumes during fifth grade.
Despite its attempt at emulating an indie, more suspenseful version of the 1993 classic Jurassic Park, Terror Birds failed to even fulfill the requirements of its genre as a horror movie because of its half-humorous, half-baked storyline. Oftentimes, it is difficult to decipher whether or not the film is a horror flick or a parody because of its over-the-top scripting, and it does not help that the film lacks the acting talent required to make the story believable. Clumsy, poorly-executed and sloppy, Terror Birds serves as a reminder of the inevitable failures of independent, low-budget horror films being wastefully produced today.