Kaw (2007) Movie Review, Trailer, and Poster

U.S. 2007
Director: Sheldon Wilson
Cast: Stephen McHattie, Sean Patrick Flanery, Rod Taylor, Kristin Booth, John Ralston
Rating: R
Release Date:
Running Time: 1 hour 32 minutes

The Movie Review

Moviegoers have already been presented with many horror movies involving animals as the "bad guy", either tame-at-first-then-wild or wild-from-the-start that in the end will attack human or treat human as their prey. Lions, snakes, crocs and everything, but we rarely see the birds as the main villain. In 2006, the world of animal horror was dominated by Snakes with the most notable title Snakes on a Plane and in 2007 it was dominated by Crocs just like in Primeval" and Lake Placid 2. But another monster flies by, featuring one the most notorious birds ever, the Raven.

The storyline is basically about the Ravens that are attacking a quiet small town where Police Chief Wayne


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Hayborne (Sean Patrick Flannery) is about to leave for the sake of his wife's career. But on his final days guarding the city, Wayne finds some strange occurrences where there are Ravens around all the time, this fact is strengthen by the nice-but-weird Clyde MacKenzie (Stephen McHattie) who claim to have been personally attacked by the birds. At first Wayne dismiss Clyde's saying but when he himself witness several victims of Birds' attack, Wayne starts to figure out for what is happening in the city. Unfortunately, on the same time, Clyde, who is a school bus driver, are taking some teenagers on his bus to a school event only to finally get stranded deep in the woods where the murderous raven are lurking. Unbeknownst to Wayne, his wife is also in trouble down in the well where she learns the truth about the mystery behind the Ravens attack.

Released in the same year as Lake Placid 2, and also recalling both of them aired by SciFi channel in United States, Kaw is slightly different with Lake Placid 2. While LP2 still has a touch of comedy in its storyline with actors who seem plain happy to play in the film, Kaw on the other hand chooses to follow the path or real horror which means no joke or comedy in it. A good thing? Not really, because Joke is the one that saves LP2 from being too plain. So by lacking any joke in Kaw, it means Kaw certainly falls to the world of mediocrity. Hmmm, make that below mediocrity.

Kaw has some quite good suspense and tense scenes that are executed nicely, ashamedly they are interconnected with a lame storyline, and not lame because it's cliché but it feels like combining several different movies into one. The stranded bus, the woman that falls into the well, and the police station scene. The dialogue doesn’t help either, especially when the most irksome character doesn't get whacked appropriately. You could even hear the classically epic catchphrase of horror films "Oh my God, we're all gonna die!” But we all know of course that the one who says that would live long enough than the other characters.

However, that's not to say that this is an all-bad horror movie. The entire cast populating Kaw perform nicely and seriously, however their seriousness is arguably wasted in this totally hackneyed flick. And although Kaw's effort in trying so hard to be a serious horror movie turns out to be not that successful, but if you really dig into Animal horror movies, Kaw probably could quench your thirst although don't get your hopes too high. For other moviegoers, it may be wise for you to just watch another movie.

© iwan pranowo of Movielogy.com