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Overall Rating : 4.5/10
Directed By : Sheldon Wilson
Sean Patrick Flanery (The Insatiable)
Rod Taylor (The Birds)
Stephen McHattie (Shoot 'Em Up)
Kristin Booth (Detroit Rock City)
Supplied By : Sony Pictures
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : October 3, 2007
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| PLOT KAW is a frightening tale told in the tradition of Alfred Hitchcock¿s The Birds, where a small town is changed forever by the sudden appearance of vicious ravens that have an insatiable taste for human flesh. |
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| THE REVIEW In KAW, for Wayne, it is his last day on the job as Sheriff of a small farm town. The plan after this day, is for Wayne and his Wife Cynthia to move away from small town life and move into the city. But what Wayne is hoping to be a breeze and to be over before he knows it, actually turns into quite the hectic day for him - certainly one that he won't forget. In a strange occurrence it seems as if the town locals are being brutally killed off, but the evidence doesn't point to any human involvement as far as suspects go. It's soon apparent that this quiet, lonely town has been basically taken over by a ravenous flock of blood thirsty ravens. As Wayne receives report after report of people turning up dead, he gets closer and closer to the cause of those deaths and the reason as to why the birds are working together in such a vicious manner - and in the meantime, he must try to protect those who remain, from any further harm. When setting up to watch KAW. I didn't know what I was going to get. Just the thought of a killer bird movie is kind of iffy, the idea seems like it could be fun, but with poor execution of the film's true stars, which are actually the birds themselves it could turn out to be very laughable. With KAW, I actually got something better than I expected. The plot is handled in a very serious manner, so of course the Ravens had to look good, and with the exception of a few shots, I was really surprised at how well they did look. The look and attack of the Ravens made it a fun film to take in for the first half, and then as the story went on, that fun started to dull down a little, but not completely. The problem lies in the film's plot. We later learn that the reason why the birds are acting so strange, is that a group of Amish-like folks, well their family had some sick cattle they failed to alert anyone about. The said cattle developed Mad Cow disease, and as the cattle died, they fed on the infected meat. Whether this is plausible and entirely believable, it makes for a good plot, nut my problem was with the Amish people. Among all the normalcy, and the other people in the film, we have a family that lives completely isolated from what the town does. To me adding this family was sort of a random thing, it just doesn't seem as if they fit in at all in the film - it would've been more believable had they been just a normal farming family I would think. Another thing is that through out the film, they make not of just how smart Ravens are, and I get that they are smart, but some of the things in which they do here, might be a little too smart, even for a Raven. In one scene we see the flock assemble in a line, all armed with stones as they, in unison begin to pet a bus - I doubt very highly that if it were a real occurrence, it would look so perfectly executed - I thought it to be a little over the top. The acting was decent i'd say, as always when you have people acting against something that isn't there, you can't expect it to be perfect really. But I will say that I have seen many creature features, in which the actors have the same circumstances going on, and they are just terrible in their reaction and believability towards the unseen creature. Here, for the most part the reaction was at least somewhat believable. Sean Patrick Flanery offers up probably the best performance as the Sheriff dedicated to his job....even if it happens to be his last day on the force. I really liked Flanery, as this particular character, and will say it's one of the better performances he's had in his last few scenes. Overall, KAW is a decent, "birds on a rampage flick"., it is fun for the most part, but after a while the film's level of entertainment begins to lose some of it's steam so to speak. It has a few jump scares that come out of nowhere and hit you in the face, and a sometimes creepy atmosphere.... it may entertain you once, but I couldn't be sure that you'd want to see it multiple times..... it doesn't have the effect, such as a film like Hitchcock's THE BIRDS has have had for some 40 years or so. All I can say is that, thank God there were no shots in this that involved a close up view of a Raven's eye or shots seen in the scrambled vision of the said Ravens. | ||||
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| GORE
METER 3/10 The gore is ok at first, but not so entertaining, it later gets to be repetitive, as a bird can only manage to kill in one way.......lots of pecking and clawing going on. |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 3.5/10 You have your typical orchestrated-sounding stuff, not anything to frightening or prominent. |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM Overall, this film is ok, it starts off at a good pace, but later seems to get dull, and the effect the birds have on you initially grows tired. I was expecting a much better plot that would accompany the idea of the killer Raven idea - sure the Mad Cow thing was a cheesy but ok start, but the whole Amish farmer thing was kind of odd, making that element of the story seem quite random. I'd recommend maybe seeing this once, but as I said, it's just not something I see anyone watching over and over again. This DVD will be released on October 23, 2007 |
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