The Birds

The Birds 1963 is a thriller from Alfred Hitchcock.

The film uses all of the key parts used in Hitchcock's other thrillers such as a MacGuffin, a hero who must thwart the enemy, suspense, dramatic irony is also used.
All of this make the film such a good thriller.

In this film the external three is from nature not from a psychopath or an organisation, it is from a threat that we do not understand.

the MacGuffin in this film are the lovebirds that Tipi Hedren buys, the audience don't care about these birds but they are what takes the plot forward.
Suspense is used extensively in this film to allow the audience to get into the situation more and when the suspense is broken it affects the audience for example when Hedren goes into the top room and all is silent until the birds sweep down.
Dramatic Irony is used in the school scene when the birds gather behind Hedren we know what is happening but she doesn't this makes the audience want to scream at the screen trying to tell her.

The birds is an open ended text as their is no clear ending the threat of the birds is never explained and is never stopped from the viewers perspective. this also links to the enigma it is a mystery as to why the birds are behaving as such. it could be anything and in the film you always expect for an explanation to appear but it never does, the characters just drive of and you don't even see the birds leave they just sit as if waiting for the opportune moment to strike.

One of the films main aspects that allows it to work so well is its suspense, how that when we can feel that something is going to happen, we are just waiting on the edge of our seats the end of the film has the characters that are left leaving in a car with all of the birds just sitting, the viewer expects the birds to do something up until the actual credits role.

This is the scene where Tipi Hedren is waiting for her friend who works in the school, whilst she is waiting she fails to notice the swarm o birds who are multiplying on the play equipment behind her.
This is another great example of Hitchcocks suspense and has an almost pantomime feel to it as you just want to scream and tell her that the birds are behind her, the suspense builds up and the viewer can hardly contain themselves.