Search - Kaw on DVD

"Kaw" is a surprisingly fun and better than average film.

Steven Hedge | Somewhere "East of Eden" | 12/22/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Okay, it is another us against it film in the tradition of the far superior The Birds by Alfred Hitchcock, but it's still very entertaining.

I found the cast of familiar faces to be both likable and believable, and, of course, I love the tip of the hat to Hitchcock by having Rod Taylor presence here who was in his "The Birds." I found the story to be tight in that there isn't too much, if any, in the way of "filler", and the direction was confident if not very ambitious.

At first glance in the video rental store, this has all the look of a straight to video or some Sci-Fi Channel reject film, but it really isn't. If you are into the genre of attacking animals, then you really should get a good kick out of this film. It was a pleasant surprise for me and it may be for you too."

Amusing silliness

Robert P. Beveridge | Cleveland, OH | 10/10/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Kaw (Sheldon Wilson, 2007)

I should first note that Kaw is not nearly as bad as most Sci-Fi Channel Original Films, and for that alone it deserves to be singled out for praise. Wilson, who was responsible for the surprisingly good basement-budget horror flick Shallow Ground a few years ago, takes on crazy birds, Mennonites, and Sean Patrick Flanery (of Boondock Saints fame), and comes up with something that may not be as good as Shallow Ground, but is still worth watching if you have an hour and a half to kill.

Wayne (Flanery) is a small-town sheriff on his last day on the job. His lovely wife Cynthia (Young People [censored for Amazon consumption]'s Kristin Booth) has just completed her degree in forensic anthropology, and, as Wayne remarks in the opening scene, his small town has no need for a professor of forensic anthropology, so the two of them are getting ready to pull up stakes and head for the big city, over Cynthia's lukewarm-at-best protests. Meanwhile, Clyde (A History of Violence's Stephen McHattie, who's going to get a lot more famous in America come February-- he's one of the main characters in Watchmen), town drunk and bus driver, is menaced by a flock of ravens until he pulls out a shotgun and starts blasting away. Clyde's on the wagon, but no one in town believes him, and Wayne and Clyde have a predictable run-in (both in the way it unfolds and in that the good guy can never believe the horror element within the first fifteen minutes). The birds don't stay under the radar long, however, but we've also got a subplot going on; Cynthia has gone to a farm owned by a Mennonite clan out in the sticks to say good-bye to a friend of hers. While there, she takes a bad step and ends up down a well with the carcasses of a number of dead cattle. Aside from the squick factor, what's up with all the dead cows?

The main way in which Kaw fails in comparison to its superior older brother Shallow Ground is that Wilson was doing something interesting and original there (and the micro-budget didn't show at all), whereas Kaw is your basic killer-bug movie except with ravens. Still, I can't bring myself to dock it points for that, partially because I'm fond of Wilson's seemingly lackadaisical but actually pretty sharp directorial style, I'm fond of Sean Patrick Flanery's scenery-chewing, I'm very fond of Megan Park (Diary of the Dead), who plays the daughter of one of the Mennonite families, I'm fond of Stephen McHattie's acting in this movie... well, I'm a lot fonder of just about everything there is about this movie than most folks, judging by the IMDB ratings. I still think Sheldon Wilson is a guy to watch. Don't take this one too seriously and you'll have fun with it. ***

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