Kaw (2006) – Film Review
Filmed in Ontario, Canada, Kaw is a made-for-TV horror film about aggressive ravens that exhibit uncharacteristic behaviour and go on the attack. It’s not as good as The Birds (1963), but is a good choice for anyone who enjoys natural horror films.
Before going any further, I should point out Rod Taylor, who plays “the Doc” in Kaw, starred alongside Tippi Hedren in The Birds. He doesn’t get much screen time, but the doc is not one of the more important characters.
The first death happens less than three minutes into the film when a local farmer accidentally runs over a raven after he shifts his tractor into gear. The raven had a lot of friends with it. After witnessing the incident, they get fired up and swoop down for revenge.
The timing of the attack is particularly bad for Wayne (Sean Patrick Planery), the local sheriff. It’s Wayne’s last day on the job and he was expecting a nice, uneventful day. Wayne plans to move to a bigger town where his wife, Cynthia (Kristin Booth) should find it easier to find work. Cynthia is a professor of cultural anthropology. There’s not a lot of demand for those in a small, rural community of only 600 people.
As Wayne scouts around the farmer’s barn to try and ascertain what happened, local school bus driver, Clyde (Stephen McHattie) is having some bird problems too. While he’s busy tinkering with the engine and prepping the bus for the day, he sees a raven on the roof. He tries to get rid of the bird by throwing empty beer cans at it. This proves unsuccessful and Clyde is giving the raven so much attention he fails to realize it’s part of a gang. His dog’s barking tips him off so he turns around and sees the angry group of ravens on the roof behind him. Seconds later, they attack.
Fortunately, Clyde manages to fight through the birds and seek sanctuary in his shed. Moments later he comes out armed with a shotgun, kills a few ravens, and drives the rest of them away.
Clyde’s neighbours don’t appreciate the early morning gunfire and report him to the sheriff, who catches up with him at the local diner. Clyde used to have a drink problem, so is not keen to say what happened. When he does, the sheriff doesn’t believe him. That changes as the body count rises.
A little way into the film, it becomes clear the local Mennonite community has an idea of what’s going on but the secret is not revealed until close to the end of the film. When it is, everything makes sense and it’s not inconceivable that such a thing could happen in real life so, viewers who live in the countryside may find Kaw extra unsettling.
Kaw is a pretty good film and the scenes with the ravens, which were trained in the Czech Republic, are very good. During one of the more memorable scenes, the birds show their smarts by picking up rocks with their claws and then, flying at the school bus, releasing the rocks at the last moment to break the windows. I’m not sure if the impact would be powerful enough to shatter the glass in real life but the scene is filmed in a way that makes it very convincing.
The acting is pretty solid too. Kaw isn’t a film I’d want to watch again, not anytime soon anyway, but overall, there’s not much to complain about. The ending doesn’t work great for me but some viewers may love it. Each to their own.
If you want to watch it, finding Kaw on Blu-ray or DVD will likely be hard. However, at the time of this review, it was possible to buy or rent Kaw via Amazon Prime Video.