Good Lord, birds are creepy - Dead Birds (2004)

This film is set in the 1800's. Anyone who knows me is aware of my dislike for the olden days. But I've always had a desire to do things that scare me so I thought, what the hell. On first impressions though, this didn't fill me with the unease that things like Dr Quinn Medicine Woman does or any BBC adaptation of a Bronte. The colours are so bright and the shooting scene at the bank is quite spectacular.

The film begins, as I said, with a group of confederate soldiers robbing a bank and shooting everyone in sight. They take over an abandoned farm house and are at once ambushed by something jumping out of the corn field. They shoot it and examine the dead body. I can only describe it as a skinny, shaved goat. Pretty cool, huh? Oh yeah, and there's a dead bird... I forgot to tell you that these male soldiers are accompanied by a quite slutty female companion. "Want to go and lie down?" God, I'm glad I'm not the only one to use that line.

After only a short while, the soldiers start to realise something supernatural may be lurking in that house; locked rooms, mysterious giggling, a book of spells... that old chestnut.

But really, what this film, in the early stages anyway, seemed to lack in the jump factor it made up for with its building suspense, which was text book and a bit more. Like with Isaiah Washington's character, he is sitting on the edge of the bed when his eye is caught by something low down. He stares at it and moves towards it for some time before we the viewer are allowed to see. This becomes a signature piece with characters staring in wardrobes and such, making me all spooked. Later, our lady is looking under the bed when she comes across a young boy who may have escaped from The Grudge. However, yes, I did nearly crap myself. So by the time one soldier finds a little girl crying in the corner with her back to him, I'm watching it through one eye!

Yes, it took about an hour to get going out of its 91 minute run time, but the surprising Stephen King type montage of disturbing images was something I didn't expect and made this film worthwhile.

And dare I say it? Some good old fashioned scares scared Sarah tonight!

"There are worse things than dying, ya know."