Movie:
Set around the time of the American Civil War a gang of Confederate thugs (we never do find out if they are soldiers or deserters) rob a bank, killing everyone in the process. They leave town with the intention of heading down to Mexico in order to split the loot and then go their separate ways, although that plan changes slightly when they decide to spend the night in an old plantation house which is on the other side of a large cornfield (that you just know if going to crop up again in the film (pardon the pun)).

Dead Birds was recommended to me a little while ago and I decided to rent it out to see what it was like. And whilst its title is misleading I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by the film, it is by no means perfect but it is far from being a complete lemon. On one side the film is fairly original in that it is set during the American Civil War, and in that whole setup looked good to me, the uniforms and the war-weary look in the people's faces all went to create a world that seemed believable and convincing, (to me at least). But it also follows standard genre conventions in that we have a creepy house, complete with a large cornfield that is spooky by day, let along by night and we have people that go off by themselves to look around therefore putting themselves in danger although in fairness I would say that whereas in some films you find yourself asking "why did you do that" when you know that a character has wandered off by themselves so that the story can set itself up for their demise, in Dead Birds the actions seem natural and not forced, that of course makes them that much more believable that someone would act in a certain way.

Whilst not outstanding I would say the all of the actors performed well within the limits of the dialogue that they were given, Washington as Todd in particular seemed to take to his role a little more naturally and I felt that William (Thomas) was in many ways too weak a leader, especially a character like Clyde (Shannon) who struck me as being a little more aggressive.

However even in spite of these negative points, I liked the film, sure the story may have run a little too slow for some of you hardcore horror fans out there, and I guess for me I did think that pacing was a tad slow on occasion, as there seemed to be a lot of searching going on and not enough visuals on the supernatural elements. But it didn't spoil the film to the point where it is unwatchable.

Deleted Scenes:
I played these with directors (Alex Turners) commentary on. You can only view these one at a time, you cannot "play all". He talks us through a number of deleted scenes not only including why they deleted them, which for the most part tends to be based on pacing reasons, but also the setup and ideas behind the scene. The deleted scenes explained one thing to me and that was why we don't see the dog anymore. In the main feature as they make their way to the house, they have a dog with them. However once inside the house the dog is never seen again, this is because they deleted the scenes out, but it is noticeable in the film that he suddenly isn't there anymore.