Horror stories always feature a protagonist and an antagonist. This antagonist, more often than not, is a horrible creature born from the deepest recesses of human fear. For example, a man who transforms into a vicious wolf-creature at the sight of a full moon and terrorizes a village or a seven-foot tall creature made out of parts of cadavers who goes on a rampage and kills everything in sight. In "The Birds" by Daphne du Maurier and The Birds by Alfred Hitchcock this is not the case, however. These stories utilize a new kind of fiend, the kind we see every day and associate with peace and harmony, birds. This short story and this movie use creatures we consider harmless and transform them into our deadliest foes. While similar in concept these two tales are very different from one another and especially in the way each expresses the theme of isolation.
The setting in the motion picture is a small coastal town in California that is quite a distance away from the nearest city. In this setting are multiple other settings such as the Brenner's home and the restaurant. These places are both sites that are attacked by the birds and where the characters are isolated from every other person in the town because if they try to leave they will be attacked and probably killed by the birds. At the Brenner's home Mitch, the main male character, boards up the windows and barricades the doors in an attempt to prevent the birds from entering the house. This seems to be a two edged sword as not only does it keep the birds out but it also keeps any other people out and the Brenners and Melanie in. At the restaurant the birds attack and all the people in the restaurant can do is watch as the birds batter the rest of the town. Near this setting is one very small scene that shows isolation more than any other throughout the rest of the movie. That is when Melanie goes into a phonebooth for safety and birds keep running into the walls.