Killing Birds (1987)

Director: Claudio Lattanzi / Joe D'Amato

Starring: Leslie Cumming, Lin Gathright

Run Time: 90 mins

Certificate: 18

 

Plot Outline: After a soldier arrives home at his remote Louisiana house to find his wife in bed with another man, he promptly kills them both before he has his eyes pecked out by some birds-of-prey which were kept in cages on the porch. Years later a team of students arrive at the house to study birds in the nearby swamps. But they are soon attacked by zombies.

The Review: For what reason they are attacked by zombies remains unclear. What the hell zombies have to do anything remains to be seen too considering the title is "Killing Birds" not "Killing Zombies." What was Robert Vaughan was doing when he signed on to this (he must have been playing his blind character in real life when he signed the contract)? So many unanswered questions and so few answers. This film, dubbed Zombie 5 in some quarters, is an appalling mess. I mean it's just a nothing film. The deadly birds aren't the main focus. But there are only 2 zombies so they can hardly be the focus too. Robert Vaughan's blind character seemed to be a bit of a menace at first but then turned out ok. I mean just what the hell is going on? You have to assume a hell of a lot because the film doesn't tell you what - I am assuming the zombies are the victims from the opening attack and Vaughan's character is either the soldier or the baby which survives. But my brain hurts when I think too hard about what is going on in films like this so I'd rather just sit back and let it flow, albeit flowing as ungracefully as this does. Fulci films usually take some imagination to figure out what is going on but this takes the piss. Even the gore, usually the sole positive from Italian horror, is pretty bad. The film itself is pretty rare and unfortunately the copy I had was clearly butchered by the censors then put back together again. The death footage is faded and dark so you can't see what is going on one moment, but then it skips to the normal unedited footage and it's like watching and listening to 2 separate films. There are one or two creepy moments where the director actually uses some good lighting to illuminate an approaching zombie but these are few and far between.

Final Verdict: Killing Birds is a sorry mix of The Birds, The Beyond and The Fog. Surely with ripping off those films, then this film should at least have some half-decent moments? Nope.  Don't even waste 90 minutes of your life trying to prove me wrong.

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