Kaw (2007)

Director:

Sheldon Wilson

Writer:

Benjamin Sztajnkrycer (writer)

Genre:

Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

Objects in the mirror may be closer and more terrifying than they appear.

Plot:

A small town is attack by ravens and doesn't know why the ravens are working together.

Plot Keywords:

Raven | Small Town | Farm | Sheriff | Curse

Cast

Sean Patrick Flanery	...	Wayne
Stephen McHattie	...	Clyde
Kristin Booth	...	Cynthia
Rod Taylor	...	Doc
John Ralston	...	Oskar
Michelle Duquet	...	Betty
Ashley Newbrough	...	Doris
Gray Powell	...	Stan
Vladimir Bondarenko	...	Jacob
Megan Park	...	Gretchen
Emma Knight	...	Connie
Amanda Brugel	...	Emma
Wendy Lyon	...	Luanne
Sophie Gendron	...	Tricia
Jefferson Brown	...	John

MPAA:

Rated R for some gory images.

Runtime:

85 min | 92 min (DVD)

Country:

USA | Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Australia:MA (2007) | USA:R | Finland:K-15 | Argentina:13 | Germany:18 (DVD rating)

Filming Locations:

Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

Goofs:

Continuity: When the 'Chief' brings the woman to the doctor, in town, his shotgun has a short barrel. Later, the same shotgun has a long barrel. It's not the same gun.

Kaw-Abunga, birdies!

Alfred Hitchcock doesn't need to rollover in his grave just yet, but at some points during this average and largely uninspired imitation of "The Birds", we definitely came too damn close! Sheldon Wilson, who recently scored a modest hit with "Shallow Ground", adds very few elements to the original idea of aggressive birds (ravens, to be exact) attacking human beings, apart from an admittedly decent explanation for the their unusual behavior. On his very last day as the Sheriff of Middletown, Wayne encounters several peculiar fatal accidents that are seemingly inflicted by ordinary ravens, judging by the bloodied wounds on the victims' bodies. Long before Wayne and the local doctor (played by Rod Taylor; lead star of Hitchock's "The Birds"!) can find the time to investigate the reasons for the birds' murderous new instincts, they have to protect and evacuate the townspeople, as the bird-attacks rapidly become more frequent and hostile. As mentioned before, I appreciated the explanation given to the epidemic of virulent ravens. I won't reveal everything, but it relates to factual diseases cattle-breeders recently had to deal with, combined with the secluded and private life style of Amish communities. The rest of the film is overall decent too, but director Wilson sadly doesn't share Hitchcock's talents to make even a simple bird look scary and menacing. The multiple and extended images of hundreds of birds suspiciously observing the people of Middletown therefore aren't very unsettling and quickly tend to get boring. Their attacks naturally are a bit monotonous as well, since they can exclusively peck their victims to death and we all know this may take a while. And still, despite all these flaws and some more, "Kaw" is an overall entertaining creature-feature that mainly benefices from likable character drawings and neat acting performances. Although most of the characters are pure stereotypes (the Sheriff facing his ultimate challenge on his last day, the town's drunkard, etc...), you quickly develop sympathy for them and you hope that at least some of them make it out alive. The photography is quite nice, with a handful of ingenious POV shots and director Wilson also effectively creates a feeling of complete isolation. There probably isn't enough gore or cheese to satisfy the majority of fanatic horror fans. I count myself among them and I thought it easily could have been much gorier without affecting the plot in a bad way. Is it too much to ask to show at least one raven pecking out someone's eyeball and fly around it with it? Guess so... "Kaw" also stands for Sean Patrick Flannery's best career move since "Boondock Saints" – he starred in a lot of straight to video crap recently – and it was a fantastic stunt to motivate Rod Taylor to star in an unofficial homage to "The Birds". Taylor barely starred in any film since the early 90's, but he's still a powerful actor. I say this reasonably well-made and interesting film deserves at least one viewing.