Ravens, infected by Mad Cow Disease when they ate from the dead cows of an Amish-like Minnonites community farm, lead a mass revolt descending upon a snowy, small town hungry for any type of flesh that can satisfy their appetites.
On the final day of his job as sheriff, Wayne(Sean Patrick Flanery)encounters a crisis that affects his whole town as huge, menacing ravens attack in packs leaving several citizens and passersby dead and their flesh torn to pieces. He must find a way to defend his people against these deadly ravens or else perish in the process. There's an army of these birds and they return in waves, always ready for human flesh.
Stephen McHattie is Clyde, an alcoholic school bus driver trying to stay sober for love-interest Betty(Michelle Suquet), who runs a little gas station/diner. Kristin Booth is Wayne's photographer wife, Cynthia, for whom he's giving up his sheriff's position so she can have a career as a teacher of anthropology. Veteran Rod Taylor(the hero in Hitchcock's The Birds)stars as the town doctor/coroner. Vladimir Bondarenko is Jacob, the religiously fanatical Minnonite who blames the curse of their cows and rampaging predatory birds on the English for he feels their people joining amongst them in activities was against God's will. He is able to hold his son Oskar(John Ralston)to silence over the cows keeping the disease a secret from the town. Megan Park is Oskar's daughter Gretchen who, along with Doris(Ashley Newbrough)and Connie(Emma Knight),become trapped on a bus when the ravens attack as Clyde attempts to fix his engine while their coach Emma(Amanda Brugel)tries to assist him.
I watched the R-rated version which contains some pretty gory flesh eating such as when a couple, lost on a road near the town, are under attack swerving upside down into a ditch..while the car explodes, a bird is shown tearing away at the flesh wound of a gash on the leg of the woman slung from the vehicle. After an attack on Clyde's dog, Wayne stops by the man's house finding the poor canine being fed from by a raven chewing away. Another great scene, my favorite of the film, has Cynthia stopping off by Jacob's Minnonite farm to bring a picture-book and falling into a well containing the skinned carcass of a cow! Another suspenseful scene has this poor child, off his bicycle, surrounded by a circle of ravens around him. Most of the attacks are shown from afar as birds form a massive attack covering their victims..we see their destruction afterward as nasty flesh wounds are shown on the dead victims.The ending is a bit too much, however. Has a nifty attack on the main characters as they try to survive a final major swarm upon them in Betty's diner. There's an obvious influence from Hitchcock's The Birds(I mean Rod Taylor's presence in the film assures at least that), but "Kaw" gives an explanation to the devastation that occurs by the ravens. The film is basically "The Birds" using modern movie techniques like CGI. We see birds flying towards(..and in waves around) the screen, into the sky, going into/flying out of trees, and on top of buildings. The cast is okay..not as interesting as the one in "The Birds", but they are really in "Kaw" to elicit fear and anxiety as the ravens come after them. Great to see Rod Taylor show up in this film, though. Might be of interest for fans of the "animals run amok" horror sub-genre. The ending is a bit too much, however. And, that one sequence when the ravens attack the school bus by throwing stones they gather in their claws is just ridiculous.
On the final day of his job as sheriff, Wayne(Sean Patrick Flanery)encounters a crisis that affects his whole town as huge, menacing ravens attack in packs leaving several citizens and passersby dead and their flesh torn to pieces. He must find a way to defend his people against these deadly ravens or else perish in the process. There's an army of these birds and they return in waves, always ready for human flesh.
Stephen McHattie is Clyde, an alcoholic school bus driver trying to stay sober for love-interest Betty(Michelle Suquet), who runs a little gas station/diner. Kristin Booth is Wayne's photographer wife, Cynthia, for whom he's giving up his sheriff's position so she can have a career as a teacher of anthropology. Veteran Rod Taylor(the hero in Hitchcock's The Birds)stars as the town doctor/coroner. Vladimir Bondarenko is Jacob, the religiously fanatical Minnonite who blames the curse of their cows and rampaging predatory birds on the English for he feels their people joining amongst them in activities was against God's will. He is able to hold his son Oskar(John Ralston)to silence over the cows keeping the disease a secret from the town. Megan Park is Oskar's daughter Gretchen who, along with Doris(Ashley Newbrough)and Connie(Emma Knight),become trapped on a bus when the ravens attack as Clyde attempts to fix his engine while their coach Emma(Amanda Brugel)tries to assist him.
I watched the R-rated version which contains some pretty gory flesh eating such as when a couple, lost on a road near the town, are under attack swerving upside down into a ditch..while the car explodes, a bird is shown tearing away at the flesh wound of a gash on the leg of the woman slung from the vehicle. After an attack on Clyde's dog, Wayne stops by the man's house finding the poor canine being fed from by a raven chewing away. Another great scene, my favorite of the film, has Cynthia stopping off by Jacob's Minnonite farm to bring a picture-book and falling into a well containing the skinned carcass of a cow! Another suspenseful scene has this poor child, off his bicycle, surrounded by a circle of ravens around him. Most of the attacks are shown from afar as birds form a massive attack covering their victims..we see their destruction afterward as nasty flesh wounds are shown on the dead victims.The ending is a bit too much, however. Has a nifty attack on the main characters as they try to survive a final major swarm upon them in Betty's diner. There's an obvious influence from Hitchcock's The Birds(I mean Rod Taylor's presence in the film assures at least that), but "Kaw" gives an explanation to the devastation that occurs by the ravens. The film is basically "The Birds" using modern movie techniques like CGI. We see birds flying towards(..and in waves around) the screen, into the sky, going into/flying out of trees, and on top of buildings. The cast is okay..not as interesting as the one in "The Birds", but they are really in "Kaw" to elicit fear and anxiety as the ravens come after them. Great to see Rod Taylor show up in this film, though. Might be of interest for fans of the "animals run amok" horror sub-genre. The ending is a bit too much, however. And, that one sequence when the ravens attack the school bus by throwing stones they gather in their claws is just ridiculous.