Hitchcock made a living on screen adaptions of successful Gothic works of literature in Rebecca, Notorious, Psycho and of course Birds. I’ve realized more and more through this class the crucial presence of Gothic Literature into the emergence of horror. Films we’ve seen such as Frankenstein and Rosemary’s Baby were works of literary fiction. Even writers such as Stephen King have made a killing through film adaptions of some of his works.
In terms of Hitchcocks’s film adaptions of Gothic Literature, Bishop makes some interesting points of how all four are connected in the general idea of gothic literature. He states, all four of these films by Hitchcock unabashedly address the psychological underside manifesting contemporary control, family tradition, underside of the otherwise normal family, reflecting and manifesting contemporary concerns regarding female independence, patriarchal control, family traditions and the tension between social classes (Bishop, 136).
What really makes this film a horror is the power of the birds with no clear motivation. They have no purpose to harm, yet it is as if mother nature is rebelling against humans. Much of the film is a romantic drama between Mitch and Melanie. The birds don’t even kill until an hour into the film. This helped emphasize the cantering of the human order by the birds. It also allowed the birds to represent issues within the human narrative such as femininity,repression, and patriarchical dominance.
Jordan.kassel238 HORROR 