The Birds 🎃

 I did notice that Hitchcock's The Birds (1963) is PG-13 now. I hadn't realized the rating had been updated, probably speaking volumes about how out of the loop I am. But "Psycho" (1960) is now rated R, so that is quite an update as well. The scene when Annie Hayworth is found dead of a sadistic bird attack by Mitch and Melanie, it is one of those "crime scenes" with this "disquiet in the quiet", besides just some squawking of the feathered fiends, on their perches, with all the control. To have no control, to be totally at the mercy of the winged menace, Hitchcock perfectly illustrates how fucked the human race could be if the creatures decided they are tired of our shit. But with the birds leading a charging onslaught on a schoolhouse of children during recess as Annie and Melanie try to keep them safe as they all flee for their lives in terror really puts the emphasis on how, at any moment, danger can explode out of the sky, crashing what could have been another idyllic day at Bodega Bay. What we don't see happen to Annie is still very much explained by how her body is found: cut up, bloodied, and torn asunder. But what we don't see happen to Annie is very much elaborated with horrific detail when Melanie walks up the stairs to the attic and is bombarded by beaks and claws herself, eventually collapsing in a heap as her arms and legs (and face) get chewed up and mauled. The trauma of Melanie after that is quite understandable. Mitch has to ease her car out of the garage and at the entrance of his house, carefully tiptoeing as to avoid his own certain death. What a masterful closing sequence as Mitch, his mother, his sister, and an injured, wounded Melanie cautiously approach the care, gradually slide in, and slowly drive out of there as all the birds are en masse, letting them (and us, the viewers) know that this is their domain.