Birdemic: Shock and Terror

I will be unusually fair and tell you that somewhere in the archives of unimaginably bad creators there might be even more amateurish stuff than this, but I don’t quite believe it myself. Birdemic is hands down the worst film I’ve ever watched, which is also aided by the fact that James Nguyen takes this as a very serious environmental message, even though he devalues himself with every filmmaking element and choice. I understand why so many people will give this an ironic 5* rating, I also had a lot of fun, but rather in a constant amazement at the extremes of monstrosity that filmmaking can be taken to (and I’m not even speaking about the special effects). It is must-see stuff for sure, but for me also the most deserved 0% in the history of cinema. (2020.11.13)

I initially liked Birdemic: Shock and Terror because it could be quite a good, very cheap B-movie that pokes fun at itself a bit and doesn't take itself too seriously. Unfortunately, it turned out to be too serious in places and didn't work. It's not funny, it's not action packed, it's not suspenseful - it's nothing. It's really just bad in the same way that the special effects that appear here are bad. (2016.07.05)

Disbelieving laughter from start to finish, even in the passages where the two protagonists are just talking or walking around, in moments when you think nothing can go wrong, it's completely silly. The timing, the cinematography, the incongruous pilfered music, the hammy acting, the things they say. After the appearance of the killer birds and the "fire" in the woods, the laughter becomes incessant. I've never, ever seen worse visual effects in my life, and I've seen the complete works of Bert I. Gordon. I've seen a lot of things in my lifetime, the vintage sci-fi genre from the 50s has absolutely incredible pieces like Mesa of Lost Women, Fire Maidens From Outer Space, Ed Wood's films, Robot Monster, then later the Turkish Star Wars, or Al Adamson's films... But this, this is guaranteed to be the most unintentionally hilarious attempt at filmmaking I've seen in several decades. And I'm surprised it hasn't gained a cult following like Tommy Wiseau's The Room, the potential is enormous and thanks to the Shockproof Film Festival for helping me discover it. So I can't really give it a pass, here you truly realise the magic of the medium called film, just like with Wood's Plan 9 from Outer Space, and taking into account the fact that like Wood, James Nguyen honestly thought he was making a great movie and gave it his all, living and breathing for it, even if to label the result a workmanlike disaster would be a compliment. The world of cinema would be poorer without people like them. (2022.01.22)