The Birds: Book Versus Movie Essay

The Birds was originally a short story written by Daphne DuMaurier and was released to the public in 1952. It was then made into a movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1963. The short story is about Nat Hocken, a farmer that lives with his family on the coast of England. The movie is about Melanie Daniels and the Brenner family and it is set in the fishing town of Bodega Bay in the United States. In both the short story and the movie, the characters get attacked by the birds. Although there are different effects used in the short story and movie, they still achieve psychological horror to the reader and the viewer.

The short story The Birds is similar to the movie The Birds in many different ways. In both the short story and the movie, there is a statement of confusion. For example, The Room Scene in the short story, Nats children are being attacked by birds in their rooms and Nat comes in to see what was happening. In shock, his first decision was to push the kids out of the room so that he could fight off the birds himself. DuMaurier relies heavily on sensory imagery to convey the attack of the birds. In the movie, Melanie hears a brief fluttering of the birds, which attracts her attention. Melanies only source of light is her flashlight. Hitchcock uses high angle shots of Melanie ascending the stairs and a low angle shots of the door, to show that the door as having power over Melanie. As Melanie opens the door, there is focus on the hole in the roof which makes us aware that something is wrong. The birds then come rushing down to attack Melanie. Quick cutting from Melanie to the birds shows the confusion of the scene. In both the short story and the movie, there are statements of confusion.

Another example in which the short story and the movie are different but are similar is the The Chimney Scene. At the beginning of the scene in the short story, we read about Nat having forgotten about something important. He then realises that the fire in the fireplace was smouldering out. This incident leads the birds down through the chimney into Nats house. DuMaurier uses olfactory imagery when Nats wife wakes up and tells Nat that she smells dead birds. As the passage goes on, we read about the singed feathers left behind by the birds, which adds more horror to the passage. A similar event also happens in the movie. This scene takes place just after the birds attack at Cathys birthday party. We notice that the lovebirds, Melanie had given Cathy as a birthday present, appear agitated and are chirping loudly. The chirping then stops as a close-up of Melanie is shot before cutting to a single bird in the fireplace. This gives us a sign that the birds are about to attack once again. Silence is then used effectively to create suspense to the viewers. When the birds came streaming down the chimney, there is no dialogue exchanged except for Mitchs command Cover your faces! Cover your eyes! All we hear throughout Mitchs command is the flapping of wings, the screeching of birds and Mitch fighting them off. The quick cuts between the masses of birds flying around in the room and the shots of the characters being attacked create confusion.

In the movie, the monkey bars scene is terrifying. Melanie decides to drive to Cathys school to make sure that she was alright. As Melanie makes her way into the classroom, we can hear the children singing which symbolises the innocence and peace of the children. Annie, the teacher, tells Melanie to wait outside until the children have finished singing. Melanie then goes outside and starts smoking a cigarette. The camera cuts from the Melanies face and the monkey-bars and after every cut to the monkeys bar, we see that more and more birds are landing on the monkey-bars. We also notice that as the number of birds increases, the shot sizes of Melanie get more close up. This is to show that Melanie is getting impatient but also to highlight she is oblivious to the build-up of the birds behind her. Soon after this, Melanie spots a bird flying in the sky. Hitchcock uses panning movement to represent Melanies eye following the flying bird.

There is a similar event to the monkey bars scene in the short story. Nat is standing in the fields looking at the bay. Nat sees that the waves are very rough. DuMaurier also uses aural imagery through activities and comparisons, for example, the roar was distant, more remote, lacking the sound and thunder of the flood. He then realises that the white smudge on top of the water where gulls. DuMaurier uses a short sentence The gulls which encaptures Nats shock and horror. DuMaurier uses repetition hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands to show us that the number of birds on the bay is rapidly increasing. DuMaurier uses the clay hills, white and clean to juxtapose with the heavy pallor of the sky. The vicious sea drumming on the rocks is an example of personification which is used to portray catastrophe and horror.

The short story The Birds written by Daphne DuMaurier and was then later on made into a movie called The Birds directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Although these two productions are very different, both the movie and the short story create horror. For example, the filming techniques that Hitchcock uses in the movie are very effective. In the short story, DuMaurier uses sensory imagery to make the readers feel what the characters in the story is experiencing. The effects may be different in the movie and the book, but both of the productions achieve a high level of psychological horror.