Exclusive: Dead Birds Movie Field Guide

"Dead Birds", the amazing and fiercely frightening Civil War horror movie, directed by Alex Turner and written by Simon Barrett, has created a veritable storm of it’s own on the Internet. Message boards, chat rooms, even reviews from people who have SEEN the movie all have their share of misinformation and confusion and it has fallen to me, with the blessing of director Alex Turner, to try and clear up a lot of the mysteries and intricacies surrounding this incredible film. Some may still argue with things I say or simply ignore the information altogether but I have it from the director and the writer themselves so, in reality, the buck DOES stop here.

WARNING!!!! Here there be many spoilers if you haven’t seen the film! Stop now and watch the movie first!

 A

• Alabama – Confederate state where action of the film takes place.
• Allegory – A story which can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning; a symbol. William’s gang can be interpreted as being a symbol for dead birds themselves.
• Annabelle – A Confederate nurse originally engaged to Jeffy Hollister. Once she meets William, as her patient, her feelings change and she joins ranks with William. Played by actress Nicki Aycox.
• Amulet – An ornament or small piece of jewelry thought to give protection against evil. Todd takes one out of his shirt as he sits alone in the Hollister house.

B

• Belle – Nickname Jeffy Hollister gives Annabelle. Sam calls her this while he is possessed by Jeffy.
• Birds, Dead – Although only one bird is shown, the dead bird is a symbol that nothing can live in the evil around the Hollister house.
• Book of Spells – The book William and Todd find in the slave quarters which contains "spells for raising the dead", according to Todd. Probably a book of voodoo compiled by one of the slaves.

C

• Cellar – Where Father Hollister tortured and killed his slaves in an attempt to bring his wife back. Where Todd encounters the ghost of one of Hollister’s victims.
• Civil War – The era in American history in which "Dead Birds" is set; 1861-1865.
• Clyde – One of the members of William’s gang who has his own agenda regarding the gold. Has an issue with Todd sharing the gold with the rest of them, as he was a slave. Played by actor Michael Shannon.
• Commentary – One of the special features on the DVD which give added insight into the film. One is with director Alex Turner alone. The other is with the director, the writer Simon Barrett, the composer Peter Lopez and two cast members, Henry Thomas and Nicki Aycox.
• Confederate – Those who fought for the South during the Civil War. Usually wore gray uniforms. William and his gang were Confederates.
• Consumption – An old-fashioned term for tuberculosis. What Mrs. Hollister dies of.
• Cornfield – This represents a barrier between the real world and the world of the Hollister farm.
• Creature – What anyone entering the Hollister house becomes. Beings summoned by Father Hollister to help bring his wife back but instead changed his family into demons/more creatures.

D

• Daughter – Youngest Hollister child who appears as a part child/part demon to Clyde in her bedroom as he is sleeping. Played by actress Melanie Abramoff.
• Decapitation – The fate Clyde meets as he is transforming into a creature after being hung up as a scarecrow in the cornfield.
• Deleted Scenes – An extra on the DVD, one of which gives a bit more explanation about some of the people who had been in the Hollister house before William’s gang.
• Deserters – What William, Sam, Clyde and Joseph are from the Confederate Army. Deserters were usually shot as some were by The Preacher who then proceeded to loot their bodies.
• Disembowelment – The torture performed upon the female slave Todd encounters in the cellar by an invisible Father Hollister. Removal of the stomach and intestines.
• Dog – Pet of William’s younger brother Sam. Absent most of the film until William encounters him in the cornfield after Annabelle’s death and Dog sees not William but a creature and gives chase.
• Doll – The Hollister daughter’s toy that Clyde comes across in her bedroom. It resembles the scarecrow that Clyde will soon be transformed into.
• Doorway(s) – Father Hollister, in performing the rituals he thinks will bring his wife back to life, opens a doorway into another dimension thereby letting in the creatures who change his children. Midway through the film, just before Sam encounters Father Hollister, all the doors in the upper hallway have been opened, symbolizing that the other dimension has taken over.

E

• 1863 – The year in which "Dead Birds" takes place.
• Evil – What the Hollister farm contains for anyone who enters it.

F

• Fairhope – The Alabama town where the bank robbery occurs at the beginning of the film. Located near Mobile, Alabama.
• Father Hollister – Grief-stricken husband who loses his wife to consumption and tries to bring her back through a book of voodoo only to bring death and destruction to his home. Played by actor Muse Watson.
• Footprints – 1) Upon first entering the Hollister house, William and his gang see two sets of human footprints on the dusty floor. One set belonged to the "creature" Sam shot in the cornfield. The other belongs to a creature still running loose in the cornfield and partially seen by Clyde at one point. 2) Footprints Todd sees while alone in another part of the house and, when he follows them, discovers that they have changed into "creature" prints. These are actually the footprints of William and his gang as they have already been transformed themselves by just entering the Hollister house.

G

• Ghosts – Father Hollister, the female slave and the Hollister son (to Sam).
• Gold – What William’s gang stole from the Commerce Bank of Fairhope. How they knew about it is not important to the story.

H

• Hands – If one looks closely at Sam’s hand as he lays the page of the spell book on the table and William’s left hand as he is fighting off Dog, the emphasized blue veins of the creatures they will soon become are visible.
• Hayloft – Where Mrs. Hollister was put after Father Hollister realized the spell to bring her back as a human didn’t work. He removed the ladder, hoping she would be trapped there.
• Hollister Farm – Large French Colonial-style plantation house next to a cornfield in South Alabama. Site of many deaths and tragedies resulting from one man’s grief.
• Horses – William’s gang travel to the Hollister farm on horses but when they attempt to flee, they discover that "something" has ripped the horses to pieces – probably Mrs. Hollister, who was left in the hayloft as a creature.

I

• Infection – During the escape from town after the bank robbery, Sam is shot in his right shoulder. At the Hollister farm, Annabelle removes the bullet and treats Sam but the wound becomes infected in a way Annabelle has never seen as she doesn't realize Sam is transforming.

J

• Jeffy Hollister – Great-nephew of Father Hollister who inherited the farm after his relative was lynched for "murdering" his family. Knew about what his great-uncle had unleashed and sent William and his gang there on purpose because he was jealous of William’s relationship with Annabelle. Died of his war wounds in a Confederate hospital. Played by actor Harris Mann.
• Joseph – Older member of William’s gang who is in cahoots with Clyde about how they can take the gold for themselves. Played by actor Mark Boone Junior.

L

• Lanterns – Only form of light William’s gang have with them when they reach the Hollister farm.
• Lighting – Director of Photography Steve Yedlin used incandescent Linestra light bulbs placed on the floor around the house to achieve the eerie lighting of the house, both inside and outside. Also known as "Evil House Lights".
• Lovecraft – Howard Philips Lovecraft (1890-1937), early master of the horror short story and creator of the Cthulu Mythos about other beings (the "Old Ones") just outside our world who once ruled here and want to return to rule again. "Dead Birds" is very Lovecraftian in its story about opening a doorway to another dimension.
• Lynching – The fate which awaits Father Hollister once it is discovered what he has done to his family. He is tied to a cross and left there "to rot for what I did".

M

• Mother – Mrs. Hollister, the beloved wife of Father Hollister whose death from consumption is the catalyst for all the tragedy that follows. Played by actress Terrie Thompson.

N

• Nance – Derogatory term for an effeminate man.  Clyde jokingly refers to Joseph as "nance" several times.
• Newborn – Once the humans have been completely transformed into creatures, they are like newborns – hairless with delicate, thin skin.
• Nurse – Annabelle’s vocation before she joined William’s gang. Most Civil War nurses did not wear uniforms but dressed in their everyday clothes.

O

• Opening Credits – The lettering used in the opening credits is very similar to the writing in the Book of Spells.
• Outhouse – Where Clyde nearly has an encounter with the other creature still on the loose, from the two sets of footprints seen upon entering the Hollister house, when he actually thinks it’s Dog.

P

• Posse – The soldiers at the end of the film who shoot William, who they see as a creature. They are in pursuit of William’s gang in order to recover the stolen gold. Two of the soldiers request permission to check the house thus continuing the cycle Father Hollister set into motion.
• Possession – After Sam’s encounter with the ghost of Father Hollister, he is possessed by both the Father’s ghost and Jeffy Hollister’s ghost when he is left with Annabelle. This way, in flashback, the full story of what Father Hollister did is revealed.
• Preacher – Leader of Father Hollister’s lynch party as well as the old man William’s gang encounters looting dead deserters who tells them he’s never heard of the Hollister farm. Perhaps to keep them away from what he knows is there? Played by actor Michael Purnell.

R

• Rawhide – What is used to tie down the female slave in the Hollister cellar. Todd’s reaction to her telling him how much it hurts leads one to think Todd himself has had rawhide used on him.
• Razor – Annabelle’s weapon of choice.
• Reflection – When William is searching upstairs for Clyde after the gold is discovered missing, as he runs back downstairs, his reflection in the window shows he has already transformed.
• Remorse – After the shoot-out in Fairhope after the bank robbery, William accidentally kills a young boy and expresses his feelings of guilt to a sleeping Annabelle later at the Hollister house.
• Revenge – When Jeffy Hollister realizes Annabelle’s affections have turned to William, he tries to strangle William in the hospital (in a dream William has) but then tells him about his great-uncle’s farm, knowing what has happened there and what remains. As Annabelle tells William, "It was a trap!".

S

• Sam – William’s younger brother who is a crack shot but who is shot himself during the escape after the bank robbery. He is later possessed by the ghosts of both Father Hollister and Jeffy Hollister when telling Annabelle what happened in the past at the Hollister farm. He dies once the story is told and his body then disappears. Played by actor Patrick Fugit.
• Scarecrow – First encountered by Annabelle in the cornfield as the gang is making its way to the house. She comments that "It looks like a man" and it turns out that it was – it was Father Hollister, left there for his "sins".
• Skinless Man – One of Father Hollister’s slaves who he sacrificed in the cellar in an attempt to bring his wife back to him.
• Slaves – Who Father Hollister used in his rituals to try and bring his wife back. They were all tortured and killed in the cellar.
• Soldiers – The men who make up the posse searching for William’s gang after the bank robbery. Two of them will go to the Hollister house, thereby continuing the cycle begun by Father Hollister and becoming creatures themselves. They are Confederate soldiers.
• Son – Older child of the Hollisters who first appears to Annabelle under his parents’ bed as a part child/part demon. Also appears as a human child to Sam. Played by actor Steven Green.
• Speculator – Someone who invests in stocks, property (in this instance, slaves) or other ventures in the hope of gain but with the risk of loss. Todd refers to Clyde as a "speculator" in the confrontation in the barn.
• Subtitles – Several viewers have complained that some of the dialogue, particularly that of Annabelle as she is speaking to William as they lie in bed, is inaudible. The DVD has subtitles is at least 8 different languages which really helps in situations like this.

T

• "They" – Reference the voice of Mrs. Hollister makes that only Todd hears. Probably a Lovecraftian reference to the "Old Ones" who reenter this world through a doorway.
• Threshold – The cornfield is the first threshold the gang must cross and it seems to be a sort of warning as it is so dense and has the frightening scarecrow to warn people away. The second threshold is once they enter the Hollister house. Once they have done this, they are doomed.
• Todd – Runaway slave loyal to William. He is the first to sense something isn’t right about the Hollister place and is the only one who attempts to leave. Played by actor Isaiah Washington.
• Torture – What Father Hollister did to his slaves in the rituals to try and bring his wife back to life.
• Transformation – What happens to anyone who enters the Hollister house. They become the creatures Father Hollister unleashed in his rituals but was unable to send back through the "doorway" because of his death.

U

• Union – Those who fought for the North during the Civil War. None are portrayed in "Dead Birds". Usually wore blue uniforms.

V

• Vaporize – When Todd encounters the partially transformed Sam in the cornfield, Sam vaporizes Todd into another dimension. The one the creatures came from.
• Voices – Todd hears voices in the house and barn that no one else hears. They are the mother’s voice, talking about what happened to her and how she wants to return to her husband.
• Voodoo – Religion practiced by slaves in the South. The Book of Spells Father Hollister finds in the slave quarters is most likely a book of voodoo.

W

• Well – Where Joseph meets his untimely end as he goes to get water for the horses. He hears the voice of a young boy (the Hollister son) calling for help but when he tries to pull him up with the rope and bucket, he realizes that whatever he is pulling up is far too heavy to be a child. But then a pair of ghostly white arms reach up and pull Joseph into the well.
• Western – Several viewers have said this film is a Western but during the Civil War and even today, Alabama is considered the Deep South, not the West. "The West" is usually any state west of the Mississippi River.
• William – Leader of a gang of Confederate deserters who rob a bank of its gold and then head for an empty plantation a deceased comrade (Jeffy Hollister) once owned to hide out until heading for Mexico. Obsessed with the gold to the exclusion of nearly everything else, even his brother’s death. Played by actor Henry Thomas.

X-Y-Z

So suspend disbelief, enjoy the movie or, as Clyde would have said, just "breeze through the trees" and let the story of "Dead Birds" "turn (you) into a little girl".

Compiled by Elaine Lamkin with the assistance of the Director and the Writer of Dead Birds
Be sure and read Elaines interview with Alex Turner and the Writer of Dead Birds