scourged

Tippi Hedren make up test photo for The Birds, 1963

Extract from Camille Paglia - The Birds:

Arms raised (like the Christ images of I Confess), Melanie seems scourged and crucified simultaneously, her clothing shredded and her silky skin ripped by beaks. As it's punctured and pulled, her hosiery looks like a second skin being flayed. Calling out to Mitch too weakly to be heard (her last thought is for Cathy's safety), Melanie is slammed against the half-open door, which does wake the others. But as she sinks to the floor, in a wonderfully choreographed cross-legged drop that completes the sequence from her sofa leg-cross, she blocks the door with her body, impeding her rescue. It's as if the room is underwater, and she is a swimmer swarmed by piranha or baby sharks. Wood sees 'voluptuous surrender and prostration' in her gestures, 'a despairing desire for annihilation'.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/47207685/The-Birds-Camille-Paglia