You are now entering Ad Space, a realm of commercials, brought before us so we might examine how they work, and discuss why we both love and hate them so. So it is written …
The Product:
Birdemic: Shock and Terror
The Promotion:
The Pitch:
We’ve taken Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds and improved it with state-of-the-art 21st Century effects.
Birdemic: Shock and Terror is one of the most infamously bad movies of the New Millennium, often mentioned in the same breath as The Room. And I find it fascinating how this trailer tries to hide the film’s obvious shortcomings, yet still ends up being far too honest about the Birdemic experience.
Notice the complete absence of any people in this trailer. If you’ve ever seen Birdemic, you know how astoundingly awful the acting and dialogue are (and even the background noise recorded with the dialogue is shite). I’m picturing someone going through the movie, trying to find enough footage to fill a trailer that wouldn’t immediately telegraph the film’s incompetence … and coming up with nada.
Only solution, then, was to go artsy with the trailer. Lotta still shots of roads and landscapes and buildings, meant to build suspense as we wait for something to go wrong, before hitting us with the money shot where the special effects carnage is put on screen.
Of course, it’s not like that worked, either. All the establishing shots are done without any sort of music or activity or interesting composition that might build mood – it’s just dull. Dull, dull, dull. Then, when the killer birds show up, they’re so badly done, and come so out of nowhere … well, they aimed for “shock and terror” and got “derisive laughter” instead.
Which makes the trailer a pretty accurate reflection of Birdemic. Lots of dull, boring, dull, tedious, dull, humdrum, dull footage, occasionally perked up by something so staggeringly incompetent you can’t help but laugh. It’s the so-bad-it’s-good film experience in a nutshell. And if you thought the sudden cut to a sky full of exploding CGI birds was abrupt and out of nowhere here, I got news for you: that’s pretty much exactly how it happens in the movie. First half of the film is just boring people going about their mundane lives, then one jump cut later, BOOM! We’re being attacked by .gifs!
I’m not sure how you’d go about creating a trailer for Birdemic that actually made the movie look good, but I’m glad we got this laughably honest depiction of the film instead.