“It’s the end of the world!”
That dramatic warning comes from Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds. And while it may have sounded slightly excessive when one frightened man shouted it inside a crowded restaurant, the hundreds of birds gathering outside suggested he might have had a point. Now HBO has decided that those birds deserve another opportunity to ruin everyone’s day.
The network is developing a limited series inspired by Hitchcock’s 1963 horror film and Daphne du Maurier’s original story. Sarah Snook will lead the project as Myra Massey, a mother who returns home with her young daughter after escaping a difficult custody battle. And because rebuilding your life is not stressful enough, the birds arrive. Myra secretly begins investigating the suspicious disappearance of a childhood friend. There is also a killer on the loose and personal threats are beginning to surround her. Then vicious bird attacks start occurring, with the official description suggesting they may be connected to the crime.
Variety confirmed that HBO is developing the project, although there is no release date yet. Tom Spezialy wrote the pilot and will executive produce. He previously worked on Watchmen and The Leftovers, which suggests that HBO has found someone comfortable with strange events and people who do not receive easy answers. David Heyman and Danny Samit will executive produce through Heyday Television. Snook will also serve as an executive producer, while HBO will make the series with Universal Global Television.
The new story appears to be moving quite far away from Hitchcock’s film. That version followed Melanie Daniels, played by Tippi Hedren, after she travelled to the coastal town of Bodega Bay. Birds began attacking people without warning, and the situation gradually moved from one badly behaved seagull to what looked like nature declaring war on humanity. Nobody explained why. The birds did not deliver a speech, reveal an evil plan or wait for someone to locate a magical object that could stop them. They simply attacked. And I think that uncertainty is exactly why the film continues to feel so unsettling.
You cannot negotiate with a flock of birds. You also cannot ask them what they want, although someone in the new series will probably try.
HBO’s version adds a murder investigation and suggests that the attacks are somehow linked to the crime. That provides the series with a mystery large enough to fill several episodes. But it also creates a danger that has nothing to do with beaks. The show may explain too much. Part of the horror in The Birds comes from watching ordinary creatures behave in a completely unnatural way. A crow sitting on a fence is nothing unusual. Twenty crows silently gathering behind you while you wait near a playground is another matter entirely.
Hitchcock allowed the audience to sit with that fear. He never provided a scientific explanation or revealed that one particularly angry person had developed the ability to control seagulls. The attacks remained unpredictable. But a television series works differently. It needs storylines, character development and reasons for people to return every week. The disappearance of Myra’s friend gives the show a clear investigation. But if the birds are directly connected to one killer, the threat could begin feeling smaller. Sarah Snook, however, is an excellent choice to hold the story together.
As Shiv Roy in Succession, she spent four seasons surrounded by people who smiled while planning one another’s destruction. Snook became extremely good at showing panic without allowing her character to admit that panic existed. A small change in her expression could tell you that Shiv had just realised the conversation was going terribly wrong. That skill should prove useful when the sky begins behaving strangely. Myra is also dealing with a custody battle while protecting her daughter, which gives the bird attacks a more personal dimension. She cannot only worry about surviving. She must decide whom to trust while keeping her child safe from a killer, a hostile legal situation and several creatures that can enter through an open window.
For heaven’s sake, close the windows.
The project is described as being inspired by both Hitchcock’s film and du Maurier’s 1952 story. The original written version takes place in Cornwall and follows a farm worker trying to protect his family from increasingly organised attacks. It presents the birds as a wider and possibly unstoppable threat.
HBO therefore has more than one version to draw from. It can borrow Hitchcock’s visual tension while returning to the family survival story found in du Maurier’s work. But the series still has to justify rebuilding a horror classic. Modern effects can place thousands of birds on screen, but more birds will not automatically create more fear. The show needs silence, patience and the uncomfortable feeling that something ordinary has suddenly started watching you.
Sarah Snook can handle the human part. HBO simply needs to remember that the birds are frightening because nobody knows what they are thinking.
