The cover of the film makes this seem like the second coming of Alfred Hitchcock’s aviary doomsday scenario. However the beasties in this Sci-Fi Channel film makes them more critters from Land of the Lost.
A group of meddling teens get attacked by the monsters and have to rely on the Last Starfighter to save them.
A group of juvenile delinquent teens are in the woods with a counselor in a sort of “scared straight” group outing. Some nasty looking birdlike creatures show up and eat their counselor leaving the teens fleeing for their lives.
Ava (Sarah Butler) is the most level headed and sane of the group the rest are a collection of archetypes. The crazy guy to balance out Ava, the cool African American guy, the slut, the whimpering overweight guy (aka bird food), and the list goes on. Ava gets in radio contact with park ranger Garrett (Lance Guest) and Dr. Hale (Clare Carey).
Dr. Hale’s hospital has been put under quarantine by men in black government officials since an avian flu infected victim was brought there. The two try to go to the woods and help out the running teens, but everyone has an equal chance of being eaten by the monsters or getting bitten and infected by the super avian flu.
I’m feeling ill. I may have caught something from the film. This film aired on the Sci Fi Channel (as proclaimed by a sticker on the cover) under the even worse name Flu Bird Horror. Well, it’s a horror alright but not for the right reasons.
The cover is really misleading as it pictures a rather large crow with a severed eye in its beak, as well as having another crow on the back. The “birds” in this case are more like dinosaurs and CGI/puppet ones at that. The acting ranges from horrible to maniacally over-the-top.
In the tradition of these Sci-Fi movies we also get a celebrity who has fallen on hard times or popped out of obscurity for the film. This time it’s Lance Guest who starred in the fine genre effort The Last Starfighter with music man Robert Preston (we’ve got trouble right here in space that starts with “S” and that stands for Starfighter) and a heavily made up Dan O’Herlihy.
I will give it the upper hand since the sister release Ghouls was much more terrible. At least director Leigh Scott knows his way around this sort of genre release; it’s too bad that he wasn’t able to make a silk purse out of this fried egg.
Flu Birds is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. The only special features are a collection of trailers (including Flu Birds) for other First Look DVDs.
Take your zinc and maybe you’ll keep from getting the flu. Flu Birds is potentially some “nature on the rampage” goofball fun and a lot better than Ghouls, but it’s still not a quality film. Not that you’d be expecting one with Sci-Fi Channel emblazoned on the front.
Flu Birds is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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