Kaw is set in the small American town of Evermore where it's the Sheriff's (Sean Patrick Flanery) last day, however his last day becomes a bit of a nightmare. First he's called to a farm where a man is found dead, then reports from all over town stating that big black Ravens are attacking the population come in. The Sheriff soon realises that the Ravens have turned & are attacking & killing the residents...
Edited & directed by Sheldon Wilson who also gets a visual effects supervisor credit one has to say I quite liked Kaw up to a certain point. The script by Benjamin Sztajnkrycer (pronounce that if you can...) takes itself pretty seriously & as everyone else has already pointed out Kaw is more or less a remake of the classic Alfred Hitchcock flick The Birds (1963), for what it is I thought it was OK actually & better than I had expected. Unfortunately the lack of gore, the lack of consistency of the Ravens (sometimes they attack, sometimes they just sit there, sometimes they try to break windows to enter buildings while other times they don't) & an absolutely terrible ending which is the main aspect of Kaw that annoyed me. After the Sheriff & an assorted bunch of survivors hold up in a café & after a few hours leave as all the birds are just dying & that's it the Ravens just drop down & die which is rather underwhelming to say the least & not much of a pay-off. The idea that the Ravens have become killers because they ate the flesh of cattle infected with Mad Cow Disease is also a trifle hard to swallow & just doesn't make a lot of sense because as a disease it doesn't actually turn the carrier 'mad' as it were.
Director Wilson does alright, the film looks nice enough although I'd have liked a bit more gore. There's a scene when a Raven pecks at the top of someones head & pulls some brain matter out, a Raven is seen pecking at someones leg which is down to the bone, there are some gory cattle carcasses & there are a few dead bodies covered in blood, not much to get excited about really. The Raven themselves are a mixture of real birds & CGI computer effects & overall the special effects are very good. Obviously Ravens are pitch black so the effects don't need any detail which helps I suppose. There's a nice foreboding atmosphere for the first hour as the bird attacks increase & there are some cool shots of rows of sinister looking Ravens sat on roofs & fences just watching people walk around but it does tend to fall apart at the end as the film peters out into nothing.
Technically the film is fine, it's certainly well made with decent special effects & well trained Ravens. Shot on location in Hamilton in Ontario in Canada. The acting is alright too, Rod Taylor who plays the small town Doctor here also appeared in Hitchcock's The Birds just to reinforce the connections & similarities between the two films.
Kaw for the first hour or so was a really neat little nature on the rampage type horror flick but the lack of gore annoys & once Mad Cow Disease is given as a reason for the killer Ravens together with a really disappointing & flat ending it sort of falls apart. Good but could have been so much better.
Edited & directed by Sheldon Wilson who also gets a visual effects supervisor credit one has to say I quite liked Kaw up to a certain point. The script by Benjamin Sztajnkrycer (pronounce that if you can...) takes itself pretty seriously & as everyone else has already pointed out Kaw is more or less a remake of the classic Alfred Hitchcock flick The Birds (1963), for what it is I thought it was OK actually & better than I had expected. Unfortunately the lack of gore, the lack of consistency of the Ravens (sometimes they attack, sometimes they just sit there, sometimes they try to break windows to enter buildings while other times they don't) & an absolutely terrible ending which is the main aspect of Kaw that annoyed me. After the Sheriff & an assorted bunch of survivors hold up in a café & after a few hours leave as all the birds are just dying & that's it the Ravens just drop down & die which is rather underwhelming to say the least & not much of a pay-off. The idea that the Ravens have become killers because they ate the flesh of cattle infected with Mad Cow Disease is also a trifle hard to swallow & just doesn't make a lot of sense because as a disease it doesn't actually turn the carrier 'mad' as it were.
Director Wilson does alright, the film looks nice enough although I'd have liked a bit more gore. There's a scene when a Raven pecks at the top of someones head & pulls some brain matter out, a Raven is seen pecking at someones leg which is down to the bone, there are some gory cattle carcasses & there are a few dead bodies covered in blood, not much to get excited about really. The Raven themselves are a mixture of real birds & CGI computer effects & overall the special effects are very good. Obviously Ravens are pitch black so the effects don't need any detail which helps I suppose. There's a nice foreboding atmosphere for the first hour as the bird attacks increase & there are some cool shots of rows of sinister looking Ravens sat on roofs & fences just watching people walk around but it does tend to fall apart at the end as the film peters out into nothing.
Technically the film is fine, it's certainly well made with decent special effects & well trained Ravens. Shot on location in Hamilton in Ontario in Canada. The acting is alright too, Rod Taylor who plays the small town Doctor here also appeared in Hitchcock's The Birds just to reinforce the connections & similarities between the two films.
Kaw for the first hour or so was a really neat little nature on the rampage type horror flick but the lack of gore annoys & once Mad Cow Disease is given as a reason for the killer Ravens together with a really disappointing & flat ending it sort of falls apart. Good but could have been so much better.