---
title: "The Birds: the reviews"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-birds/reviews"
title_page: "https://film.one/film/the-birds"
critics_score: 68
critics_reviews: 7
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# The Birds (1963): what the critics said

Critics' score 68 from 7 reviews: 4 positive, 1 mixed, 2 negative.

Most critics come away unsettled, and the praise clusters on how Hitchcock stages the attacks. The birds gathering outside the school are picked out more than once as the film’s most frightening passage, and several reviews note how much of the dread comes from the refusal to explain anything. The electronic soundtrack of bird noise, rather than a conventional score, is singled out as part of what makes it so eerie, and the film is described as darkly comic before it turns nasty.

The spread is wide, and the dissent is old. The two reviews written on release are the two negative ones: Variety finds the human drama thin and the romantic subplot left dangling, and The New Yorker goes further, arguing the film never builds suspense and finding the sadism of the attacks repellent. Later critics are markedly warmer, and one review reads more as description than verdict.

## Radio Times — Alan Jones

Rating 5/5. 

Jones describes the film as a black comedy that becomes genuinely unsettling, and regards it as a Hitchcock classic. He singles out its horrific allegory and enduring place in popular mythology.

[Read the review](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-ac9xnw/the-birds/)

## Empire — Kim Newman

Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 2011. 

Newman calls it a genuinely disturbing thriller classic and praises its unsettling, unexplained assault on ordinary characters. He singles out the birds gathering outside the school as a particularly creepy moment.

[Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/birds-review/)

## Time Out — TM

Fi1m's normalised score 65/100 (inferred from the text). 

The available metadata identifies this as a review but does not reveal the critic’s verdict. Its description points to the film’s menace, but offers no clear evaluative judgment.

[Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-birds)

## Variety — Variety Staff

Fi1m's normalised score 40/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 1963. 

The review finds the film visually compelling but dramatically weak, calling it a shocker for its own sake. It praises the birds’ bizarre, terrifying attacks while faulting the unresolved romantic subplot and weak human element.

[Read the review](https://variety.com/1962/film/reviews/the-birds-1200420325/)

## The New Yorker — Brendan Gill

Fi1m's normalised score 20/100 (inferred from the text). 29 March 1963. 

Gill calls the film a sorry failure, arguing that it fails to create suspense. He singles out the exposed sadism of the bird attacks as especially repellant.

[Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1963/04/06/bunglers)

## Polygon — Oli Welsh

Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 30 October 2025. 

Welsh calls the film a masterpiece of existential horror, finding it both terrifying and profoundly evil. He singles out its eerie electronic bird-noise soundtrack and the forceful staging of its attacks.

[Read the review](https://www.polygon.com/birds-best-horror-to-stream-alfred-hitchcock/)

## Eye for Film — Jennie Kermode

Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 8 February 2009. 

Kermode regards the film as a powerful, devastating work and a model of simple storytelling. She especially praises Hitchcock’s cinematography and the mounting tension of the schoolhouse scene.

[Read the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/the-birds-film-review-by-jennie-kermode)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/the-birds.md