For this month’s installment of “TV Terrors” we revisit The Birds II: Land’s End, the direct-to-TV sequel to the Alfred Hitchcock classic that aired on Showtime back in 1994.
Man. The Birds II: Land’s End was a bad idea.
Even in 1994, we all knew that it was a bad idea.
Not many people remember, but back in the nineties, the Showtime cable network was heavily based in science fiction. They aired and promoted shows like “The Outer Limits,” “Poltergeist,” and “Stargate SG1,” among many others. When the time came to air The Birds II: Land’s End, it seemed like a natural fit, and the channel gave it a massive PR push, with previews, behind the scenes, and retrospectives. They even aired it alongside the original Alfred Hitchcock masterpiece. Lo and behold, when it premiered, it was greeted with a large, collective groan.
It’s not that it was a TV movie, or even that it was a misguided choice to follow Hitchcock’s original classic from 1963 with a 1990s sequel. It’s more that it was just plain bad.
The Birds II is an awful film that works hard to establish itself as part of The Birds canon, and miserably fails every step of the way. It’s so bad that the actual director – Rick Rosenthal of Halloween II fame – even requested to be credited under the pseudonym Alan Smithee. There are so many characters, so many sub-plots and side-plots and so many things going on that the director barely unpacks it all within the ninety minute window. And when it all comes to a close, it’s greeted with a collective thud.
Not even the original Alfred Hitchcock movie packed in so much. It was probably too focused on nail biting tension and absolute horror to take time out for a love triangle.
In The Birds II, Patriarch Ted Hocken is the mundane dad and professor who dotes after his two daughters, and passive aggressively bickers with his wife. All the while he spends his days haunted by the memory of his dead son because—he needs something to do…? His wife Mary Hocken begins working as a journalist for the small town alongside her superior Frank who blatantly comes on to her and makes obvious passes. She doesn’t really seem to mind much at all, and even chastises Ted when he begins to notice.
Their two young daughters, Jill and Joanna, are there to basically react to everything. They gasp and scream at birds, their dog, random passersby, and even the old man (another exposition dumper) working at the light house. Tippi Hedren even returns as a brand new character, the local shop owner—let’s call her Helen McExposition. She’s there mainly to offer information dumps for the characters (and audience) and she also serves as an awkward reminder that this “sequel” has nothing to do with the first film – not even its central location.
The Hockens just seem to be hapless victims of an apparent rising series of bird attacks, none of which have anything to do with the sub-plots and themes going on here. Director Rosenthal and the film’s script can never quite seem to figure out where they’re going with much of the narrative; it references much of Hitchcock’s original film, while also crediting original author Daphne De Maurier. The ideas about grieving a lost child, and an apparent potential affair, amount to absolutely nothing and are basically just filler to get us to the bird attacks.
There are also slight hints toward environmental concerns that are killing off random birds in oil spills, but even that is dropped mid-way. The Birds II is an oddity much in the realm of other 1990s Hitchcock revisits. It may not be good, but it’s a curious must-see all the same.
IS IT ON DVD/BLU-RAY/STREAMING? Vinegar Syndrome just released a deluxe Blu-ray with bells and whistles and a newly restored print. You have to love them, don’t you?
Horror and science fiction have always been a part of the television canvas, and constant attempts have been made over the years to produce classic entertainment. Some have fallen by the wayside, while others became mainstream phenomena. With “TV Terrors,” we take a look back at the many genre efforts from the 80’s, 90’s, and 00’s, exploring some shows that became cult classics, and others that sank into obscurity.
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