Birdemic: Shock and Terror (2010) on Netflix
NR20101h 33mHorrorRomanceThriller
Nathalie, an aspiring fashion model, reconnects with Rod, an old classmate who sells software in Silicon Valley. They date as wildfires break out and diseased birds wash up on beaches.
- Netflix2.5/5
- IMDb1.7/1027,311 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes19%
Trailer
Plot summary
Rod works as a software salesman in Silicon Valley, where he meets an old classmate, Nathalie, who wants a career in fashion modeling. The two begin dating, and the relationship goes well for them both. A large bonus lets Rod launch a company of his own, and a lingerie brand hires Nathalie as a model. Neither of them notices the signs around them: fires that start without explanation and the bodies of sick birds that wash ashore.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Birdemic: Shock and Terror (2010)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- James Nguyen met Whitney Moore in a parking lot, where she told him she had just graduated from high school and wanted an acting career. Her audition took place right there in the parking lot, and that is how she got the part.
- While shooting on a public jogging trail, Nguyen started yelling at joggers who got in the shot. When Whitney Moore told him not to shout at people who had nothing to do with the film, he refused to speak to her for three weeks and gave her his direction through her co-star Alan Bagh.
- The film was shot without location permits. Stephen Gustavson, who played the treehugger, said that during his scene Nguyen spotted a park ranger nearby and advised the cast and crew to pretend they were having a picnic.
- There were so few crew members that the actors did the crew's work, often holding their own microphones and sometimes gripping them between their knees. Whitney Moore took charge of makeup after the first two makeup women quit, and the credits carry fake crew names to make the film look more legitimate.
- Whitney Moore said in a 2020 interview that Nguyen phoned her an hour after her audition to say she had the part, which helped her realize the film would not be good. She also said the romantic motel scene was re-filmed at least eight times, which made her uncomfortable.
- Birdemic began production in 2006 and took four years to finish. Principal photography was done mostly at weekends over seven months because of the cast and crew's other commitments, and Nguyen financed the film through his day job while hunting for a distributor.
- In January 2009 Nguyen went to the Sundance Film Festival to promote the film freelance, handing out flyers from a van adorned with stuffed birds and misspelled paper signs reading "BIDEMIC.COM" and "WHY DID THE EAGLES AND VULTURES ATTACKED ?", and renting out a local bar to screen it.
