Massive Swarm Of Birds Halt Highway Traffic, See The Eerie Footage
In a video clip caught by a Twitter user, thousands of birds descend on a Houston freeway, causing havoc.
It’s “the end of times,” according to the caption of one tweet that shows a swarm of birds invading a Houston Freeway while ominous gray clouds swirl in the sky above the city. In a scene that seems like it should be straight out of the remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller film The Birds, thousands of feathered creatures can be seen swooping over the interstate and dodging between passing cars as reported by the Daily Mail.
Although it’s not actually a stunt to promote Universal’s proposed remake of The Birds, the scene, which was captured by a driver caught in the hive, feels as though it is something straight out of a horror movie. The ominous dark sky doesn’t help revive the scene either. In the video, a swarm of birds can be seen flying in a snakelike formation, diving in front of cars, and watching drivers forebodingly while perched on top of the cement divider that separates the two directions of traffic.
The birds can be seen dancing in a murmuration, a word used to describe when a collection of blackbirds seemingly perform an aerial ballet with choreographed swoops and dives that make it appear as though the swarm of birds all have the same mind. The blackbirds stopped traffic with their performance, forcing cars to slow down and pull over, so as to not hit the feathered beasts. At one point, some of the birds even flew directly into the spotlight of the camera, almost hitting the Twitter user’s windshield.
Just like in Hitchcock’s The Birds, these blackbirds seem to be up to something sinister. In The Birds, based on Daphne du Maurier’s book of the same name, a swarm of birds unexplainably begin to attack the people of Bodega Bay, California, in an invasion that lasts several days until the protagonists escape.
Although this swarm of birds is a natural occurrence that often happens among blackbirds, who are extremely effective communicators, the menacing-looking scene does a great job of reminding viewers of Hitchcock’s film and the horror roots that Universal built their studios on. While there has been no official announcement for The Birds remake, with all the remakes and reboots that are currently happening, remaking the 1963 Hitchcock classic would be an extremely interesting choice.
Allegedly, the MCU’s Black Widow’s Scarlett Johansson is being eyed for the lead role in the horror film about the attack of the aggressive swarm of birds. Johansson is reportedly in talks to play the film’s main heroine, Melanie Anderson, who was originally played by Tippi Hedren, who earned her screen debut in the Hitchcock film. The original feature also starred Rod Taylor as Mitch Brenner, Jessica Tandy as Lydia Brenner, and Veronica Cartwright as Mitch’s kid sister Cathy Brenner. The film was one of Cartwright’s earliest roles, and the actress would go on to have a lengthy career in film in television, starring in films like Alien (1979) and The Witches of Eastwick (1987).
Whether this swarm of birds in Houston is a sign that Universal Studios should remake the Hitchcock classic, or a sign that maybe old films should be left alone, who knows? But it certainly made an eventful drive for Houston commuters.
