Editor / director Sheldon Wilson made the flawed but compelling SHALLOW GROUND a couple of years ago, a movie that displayed many hallmarks of a filmmaker destined for even better things with future movies. His follow-up, KAW, is an understated contemporary riff on THE BIRDS. Ravens, referred to here as “smarter than dogs” and as representing “the eyes of the Devil”, have been a recurring presence in horror from the work of Edgar Allen Poe to DAMIEN : OMEN II. Now they have a flick all to themselves.
In small town U.S.A., a farmer runs over a raven by accident and falls victim to a whole flock of ‘em. Jittery bus driver Stephen McHattie suffers a non-fatal attack and soon ordinary folk and dogs are perishing in raven-induced car crashes or turning up in a mortally pecked state. The resident Mennonites express their opinion that the plague of birds is a sign from God designed to punish the sins of others in the town. It transpires, however, that the ravens are suffering from a variant of Mad Cow Disease derived from Mennonite land, having fed upon dead, infected cattle. Police chief Sean Patrick Flannery and cutely cast original BIRDS hero Rod Taylor (as the County Coroner) are on the case.
As was evident throughout SHALLOW GROUND, Wilson is adept at building and sustaining a creepy mood via careful compositions, acute editing and effective use of sound. In KAW he largely avoids cheap references to the obvious inspiration (aside from Taylor’s cameo and a very familiar diner adjacent to a gas station) in favour of capturing an evocative wintry small town ambience and maintaining a sense of menace reinforced by the eerie score. Bordering on pedestrian at times, the movie nonetheless pulls off some suspenseful scenarios, notably siege situations (characters trapped on a broken down school bus / holed up in a diner) typical of 60’s / 70’s American horror in the wake of THE BIRDS.
Significantly, the weaker CG shots are inferior to the mostly impressive optical FX employed in the still-scary Hitchcock film over four decades ago. Low budget CG FX are destined to be the downfall of modest, otherwise well made films like this : a climactic explosion is especially poor and it’s a fair bet that, in 40 years time, THE BIRDS will still look good while KAW’s special effects will be merely mirth-inducing.
Also weakened by a half-hearted wrap-up and a very standard final-scare coda, KAW is still respectably above average in the straight-to-DVD revenge of nature sub-genre. It’s a small-scale movie, though commendably straight-faced in its execution.
-Steven West
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
