Well, what is there to be seen here that hasn’t been seen a million times before? Very little, that’s what; the storyline of this one plays out in a fairly traditional and uninspiring fashion, a flock of killer ravens descend upon a small town in the middle of nowhere USA and it’s up to a small group to save the day. The movie starts by going for the jugular, with an assault by the birds on one of the resident farmers, after this the we’re introduced to a few of the movies main characters, the local sheriff, his girlfriend and the local town loon; whom finds himself fending off an attack from the mighty bird flock. The local sheriff in total disbelief, refuses to believe what is really going on until the death count gets so high it’s hitting him square in the face. At this point it becomes a game of survival as the ravens descend on anybody and anything in town.

It’s difficult to get excited about the prospect of a movie whose main bad guy is a flock of birds. There’s really nothing to see here that Alfred Hitchcock didn’t do decades ago with the classic ‘the Birds’. They’ve tried to throw in a few gory images here and there, but it really doesn’t cut it. Perhaps folks with a phobia of feathers may argue differently, but birds just aren’t that scary; in this reviewer’s opinion anyway.

The special effects can at times look very CGI-like making the bird menace look even less scary, not good.

They have thrown in a Mennonite connection, to try and create a greater sense of mystery in the storyline; this does work to some extent, elevating the movie from its hum-drum premise. Acting wise the movie is decent for a b-movie, acceptable performances from all, Stephen McHattie probably standing out the best as the local loon Clyde. Pacing wise Kaw is okay, it doesn’t take too long for things to get moving and for the death scenes to start rolling in.

Kaw isn’t really a bad movie, it just doesn’t do enough to elevate itself above the rest of the crowd, perhaps worth seeing if you got nothing to do one night.

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