Damn, maybe Banksy made this......

I finally got a chance to experience the "shock and terror" for myself in a proper theater setting, and I have to say.......it was quite the exhausting experience. Physically exhausting because of the belly laughs the movie (term used very loosely) constantly triggers, but also mentally exhausting because of the sheer ineptitude with which it was made.

It's one thing to watch this on your *cough* computer, but watching it on the big screen really amplifies the atrocious filmmaking committed to VHS: the amateurish (when it's even there) lighting; the audio levels jumping between cuts in the same scene; the abrupt (and obviously unintentional) jump cuts; the generic library music pasted in as score; and the below-awful performance by Alan Bagh as Rod (some of the actors, including Whitney Moore, could conceivably be talented if given the chance to be in a real film, but it's not easy to tell here). And the "cinematography"?? Have you ever left a camcorder on by accident, and when you watch the footage it's just a long shot of utter boringness that isn't even framed well? That's what a good chunk of this movie is like.

What can I say that hasn't already been said about the "special" effects? There are tons of people on the 'net who have produced near Hollywood-level effects with chump change, but Birdemic's graphics might have passed as previz for a Sci-Fi Channel Original Movie.

Anyways, after seeing it as it was meant (I guess?) to be shown, I now refuse to believe a grown man (in this case, Mr. James Nguyen) took the time (Years?? Really??) to piece this.....thing together, and still somehow believe it's at least halfway decently made, according to the interviews I've seen and read. A group of high school - nay, grade school - kids could (and have) made something much more polished and entertaining with the exact same means.

So in an effort to rationalize the actual shock and terror I was subjected to, I'm starting to think that the whole thing is actually, as some have suggested, a big put-on by someone (Banksy? Tim and Eric? Spike Jonze? Al Gore?). In which case Birdemic would be a work of absolute genius. If not, then at least it was a great The Room-esque theater experience. Although.......I think, near the end, the laughter was more a way for everyone to stay sane.