Terror Birds (2016) User Reviews

Well, it was watchable, just keep your expectations low...

[paul_haakonsen · 4/10 · 17 May 2019]

Given the title of the movie, "Terror Birds", you know exactly what you are getting yourself into when you sit down to watch a movie like this. But still, I did so, because once in a while a couple of these creature features actually turn out to be surprisingly good and entertaining...

..."Terror Birds" wasn't one of those times!

While the movie definitely was entertaining enough, for what it was of course, then it was also horrible generic in terms of how movies of this particular type goes. It followed a very straight forward script, but also one that was so mundane that it sort of felt like it was running on autopilot, and it offered very little to the audience.

The idea of the movie was adequate, although it didn't make sense about the acquisition of the birds or how they would come to be alive. But hey, science facts is hardly the crucial ingredient in a movie such as this. But at least serve the audience something that passes as just an ounce of believable or agreeable.

Creature features such as "Terror Bird" needs to have either realistic practical effects or really good CGI effects. "Terror Birds" had none of this. The CGI animated birds were just not believable, it looked too fake. And the CGI animated blood in some scenes was just atrocious to bear witness to. And bad CGI in a creature feature drags the movie down, far, far down.

As for the acting in "Terror Birds", well... First of all, I wasn't familiar with anyone here, and I consider that to be a good thing. I enjoy watching unfamiliar faces on the screen, because then I don't associate them with previously portrayed characters from other movies. However, the actors and actresses here had so little to work with that they were indeed fighting and losing a steep uphill battle.

I managed to sit through "Terror Birds", as it was sort of pseudo-entertaining, albeit a less than mediocre movie experience. It is not a movie that I will be watching a second time, that's for sure.

Phorusrhacidae

[Stevieboy666 · 3/10 · 14 May 2019]

When a birdwatcher goes missing his daughter and her college buddies go looking for him in the Texan backwoods, or something. Then they get killed off, one by one and stuff by Phorusrhacidae, or Terror Birds as they are better know. A rich, ruthless man is attempting to breed them, no matter what the cost. It goes without saying that this is yet another cheap and very cheesy horror/monster flick, complete with wooden acting, silly plot and crap CGI. However this film has its tongue planted firmly in cheek, it is as much a comedy as it is a horror movie and to be fair it is reasonably funny at times. Not a total waste of my time and money, I was expecting worse and I now know what a Terror Bird is!

Hilariously cheesy

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 20 December 2018]

TERROR BIRDS is yet another hilariously cheesy monster flick from the SyFy Channel; this one's about a pair of genetically-engineered giant prehistoric birds that escape to bump off a bunch of unsuspecting characters hunting for a missing birdwatcher. If you're seen one of these movies you've really seen them all, and this ticks off all the boxes: cheap gore FX, semi-decent CGI creatures, lame characters, cheesy dialogue, bad acting. It's far from the worst I've seen from this particular genre, but it's not particularly engaging or entertaining either.

A perfectly mediocre flick

[jamcam09 · 3/10 · 18 March 2020]

There are much worse films available, but however generous one might try to be, one cannot really score this offering very high. It does not have the craziness of Six-headed Shark Attack, nor the ingenuity & novelty of a genuinely good film like The Man From Earth. It is faithful to its genre: nowhere near as much as fun as Megalodon, Hydra, or Piranhaconda, but not insultingly dull or witless either.

There is some gore and several deaths. Most of the characters were either flat, or unsympathetic. The titular birds were highly visible. They would not have been out of place in a Doug McClure film.

It was not involving, let alone gripping, but tolerable, the kind of film one can watch with half an eye, use as wallpaper while doing other things, and dip into now and again whenever anything interesting seemed to be happening, without much risk of missing anything important while not attending to it.

The very last scene could be used as a sequel hook - but a sequel to this seems unlikely, as the film showed little of the inventiveness, energy, and skill in plotting that good sequels seem to be built on.

Typical scifi

[bl-63974 · 4/10 · 26 January 2020]

Very cheesy, with a fair amount of Gore. If that's what you're looking for this is for you. Personally sorry to see Greg Evigan Reduced to having to do this kind of thing for a paycheck. But it's a gig right ?

Fantastic Bad CheesyMovie

[Dark_Lord_Mark · 5/10 · 19 February 2019]

Big birds, insane philanthropists and cheesy acting.

The movie is fun, will a cast who seems to understand they are making a B Grade movie.

I was surprised..........

[ac-44715 · 1/10 · 30 June 2020]

.......that this was not another syfy channel flick! I "saw" this as a double feature with sharktopus vs pteracuda... At least s vs p had conan o' brien in it! I am still trying to determine if birdemic is better than terrorbird. 'nuff said....

About the movie, not about water

[jessegehrig · 3/10 · 22 June 2020]

This movie happens in Texas. Its about interpersonal relationships between adults. Also its about prehistoric animals, terror birds specifically, and maybe they got interpersonal relationships as well, birds are more intelligent than we give them credit. Now this point is not really relevant to the movie, I'm just throwing it in here to fill up space but also it's just interesting- all the water in the world is the same water that's ever been here, it's the same water all through out time, like its eternal, changing form constantly but never departing from the earth. Okay, back to the movie- some of the characters in the course of the movie are slain by the terror birds. If our bodies are mostly made of water, even after our bodies have gone, the water that made up our bodies will remain.

Watchable

[bitbucketchip · 4/10 · 7 August 2022]

A group of whiny thirty-something college students go in search of one their dads who went missing on a heavily fortified ranch, probably to escape from his whiny daughter and her whiny friends. During the course of the investigation they whine their way onto the ranch and come whiny face to beak with the titular large birds.

Watchable, but just barely. Take away the incessant whining and you would have a decent 1950's large animal movie worth six stars. But with all the whining, four stars is generous.

Wow. It's BJ McKay And His Best Friend CGI Bird.

[wandernn1-81-683274 · 3/10 · 8 March 2022]

And some horrific CGI Birds they are. The CGI is just terrible. But at least it's better than Peter Jackson's flapping at the air King Kong CGI. A silly story here about 2 killer ostriches that go on the rampage in BJ McKays bird sanctuary. I made it to the end, barely. What a lamer. But it avoids the 2 thanks to the security guy who ALMOST made it to the end. 3/10.

Could be true...

[because-of-him · 8/10 · 10 October 2017]

The plot is fairly simple: a bird-watcher investigates sounds coming from a ranch where a greedy rancher possesses some prehistoric birds he recently found on a desolate island. After some time, bird-watcher's daughter begins to worry because he has not returned home, but she and friends are able to trace his whereabouts via GPS. The best parts of the movie are the special effects, because when the birds interact with humans, they appear very fleshly and real. The actors are easy on the eyes and act well, except for the annoying feature of many horror movies: when victims should run away...they don't...Ugh! Since the story line contains a possibility of truth (whales, for example, are survivors of prehistoric times; so, there could be a possibility that some unknown prehistoric creatures are at uncharted areas), the movie has credibility and thus is interesting. The TV version silences the obvious profanities (via moving lips) in the movie. That makes it easy on the ears. I gave it an 8/10.

Far better than it should be but still somewhat flawed

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 7/10 · 13 October 2019]

Attempting to find her missing father, a woman and her friends head out to his secluded ranch in the wilderness to look for him, finally coming across another isolated farmhouse housing a doctor's secret collection of vicious terror birds and must find a way to get away alive.

Overall, this one was quite fun for what it's trying to do. One of it's better features here is the fun setup that emerges here to have the birds get loose in the facility. The idea of the facility being based to study the creatures in secrecy after being discovered on the expedition, out in the middle of the woods and filled with plenty of security and secrecy serves as an appropriate launching pad for what's going on here. The scientists' discovery of the site results in a fantastic attack scene that gives this one the impetus for its true plotline of having the kids coming to look after him and get caught up in the same mess he did. Likewise, with them completely unaware of their existence and no one being forced to explain why these creatures are still alive so we're spared that kind of useless padding that typically fills these kinds of films. That also brings up the series of fun attacks by the killer birds which is rather enjoyable throughout here. The initial attack by the birds while being released from their transport vessel makes for a strong opening here, and the fateful attack that brings the kids into the storyline has a modicum of suspense with the desire to get him out of their corral before the creatures get to him. Later on, when the group arrives and the realize the creatures are there really starts this one going with a relentless series of attacks and encounters that builds up the pacing far more than before. With attacks and chases throughout the corral as well as interference with the other guards attempting to kill them without getting their hands dirty and trying to force the birds to actually deliver the killing blow which is a rather unique tactic, giving off some great action of the dwindling survivors trying to get off the ranch. As these provide enough gore to stay interesting during this section and showing off the great design of the birds, these here are what make this one enjoyable. There are some issues with this one. One of the biggest issues with this one is the rather unnecessary padding that is quite prominent in the first half of the film. There's plenty of subplots in this one, namely the series of arguments over the ethical treatment of the birds and what's going to happen to them following the accidentally killing of the father in the compound which is completely overbearing and mishandled with the way he disregards everything like always in these kinds of films. As is the case with the constantly-complaining sorority queen that joins them on the expedition to look after her boyfriend that has no business being out there or a subplot featuring some stranger following them for retribution after insulting him as these two plot-points make this one take longer than necessary to get to the creature action. The birds are distractingly CGI but it's not detrimental which is perfectly fine for this kind of film and really amount to its only real flaws.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

Welcome to the food chain

[nogodnomasters · 6/10 · 10 January 2018]

Keith Stern (Craig Nigh) is an avid bird watcher deep in the heart of Texas, where he has a cabin. He is attempting to see the Crested Caracara, but instead crosses into posted land and gets the thrill of seeing a "life bird" although not indigenous. Unfortunately the "life bird" sees him and invites him to lunch.

His daughter Maddy (Jessica Lee Keller, aka Jordanna Brewster light) decides to look for dad instead of getting her eyebrows done. She brings along some college buddies..all who have to strip down to bra and panties when crossing a knee deep river. There is some rivalry within the group which is kept to the level of humorous banter. The Blond (Lindsey Sporrer) is called a slut-o-saurous and she describes themselves "salty sweaty student skewers."

Guide: No swearing, sex, or nudity. SyFy quality. Might be okay for tween family night if you don't mind heads getting ripped off and a bit of blood squirt.

"All it takes is one bad egg."

[parry_na · 6/10 · 21 August 2020]

Two outsized birds escape captivity and cause CGI havoc amongst a cast who appear to be having a great time. Such ebullience is addictive, and if you're in the mood, this is pretty good fun, on a strictly Scooby-Doo level.

Dumb adults and funny, smart-arse cute teens (of whom, my favourite might well be constantly sniping Taylor - Lindsey Sporrer - the silliest of all) hog too much of the running time when what we really want to see is some decently rendered birds pecking some poor blighter to death. This being a fairly family 'friendly' ScyFy project, there are no profanities and nothing too shocking.

My score is 6 out of 10.

Is Heath Allyn related to an Estevez?

[milkhole213 · 6/10 · 26 October 2021]

Terror Birds is one of those made for SyFy CG creature-fests which I don't actually remember being on that channel. If it had been I surely would have watched it. I had to buy a import DVD to see it because apparently it's too mediocre to release here. It is mediocre compared to many of these kind of films though superior to most recent Asylum stuff. The CG of the giant prehistoric birds known as Phorushacids is decent. There's a fair amount of mostly CG gore including eviscerations, decapitations and a highlight of a head getting cracked open on the top and then the bare skull and spine being ripped out together. There's also a small amount of practical wound effects which are well done. The star is the ever reliable Greg Evigan as a somewhat-sleazy prehistoric bird breeder. The rest of the cast is decent though the girls could have been cuter and one character being a token lesbian seemed pointless, at least the cast was 100% non-diverse for a change. Heath Allyn plays one of Evigan's henchmen and looks and sounds 100% like a lost son/cousin of Joe Estevez though there doesn't appear to be any relation. The whole film is played fairly light though not to a Sharknado degree and there's some comic relief here in the form of the annoying "hot" ditsy blonde girl. Being made for TV means there's no nudity or bad language though they do find an excuse to get the girls to strip down to their underwear. The only real disappointment here is there's only two giant birds and they don't rampage through a small town or anything. A good watch for fans of Flu Birds of Kaw.