Is there any significance to the bird flying into Shelby's face in "It's What's Inside"?

Question

Early in Netflix's It's What's Inside (2024), a bird flies directly into Shelby's (Brittany O'Grady) face as she arrives at Reuben's home. This seems to unsettle her, and she later mentions it to her friends inside the house. However, as far as I can tell, the incident is never mentioned or referenced again.

Like many thrillers, most of the seemingly minor events in the film foreshadow later events or reveal something significant later in the story. However, I couldn't find any clear connection between the bird incident and the rest of the film. It feels like it could be cut from the movie without affecting the overall narrative, but perhaps I missed something.

Does the bird flying into Shelby's face have any significance, or is it referencing something else?

Answer 1

The film's director discussed this in an interview with The Film Stage. In short, it was supposed to make the audience anxious, as well as to give the audience an insight into the dysfunctional relationship between Shelby and her partner.

TFS. I do want to shout out Brittany O’Grady. Even though it is an ensemble piece, you need to be rooting for the Shelby character the whole time. And without going crazy with spoilers: people are playing at different emotions and motivations, things are changing, etc. But there is an anchor and it is Shelby. One moment I love in the beginning––and I’m wondering how you got to this moment in the script or on set––is the bird thing when they’re walking into the house. It’s such a good rendering of a relationship. Obviously their relationship is having trouble, but it’s such a relatable moment for any relationship, I think. She overreacts, he underreacts, and that energy then goes into the house. How do you get to that moment? It feels like a perfect calibration… every person has had that conversation.

Jardin: Shelby is a very anxious character. I’m a pretty anxious guy. Like, the idea of going to a party where you’re seeing people and everyone’s talking over one another––that kind of situation kind of makes me nuts. I was like, “Okay, the film itself should make the audience feel the way that Shelby feels.” It’s essentially like the first ten minutes: Shelby kind of keeps getting dunked on and so I wanted there to be this bird that was essentially like a manifestation of her anxiety. “I really don’t want to go to this party; I really don’t want to go to this house. My partner is just chatting as if he’s, like, completely unaware of my anxiety.”

We needed something to comically exacerbate her anxiety. I went through a bunch of different ideas, but we kind of landed on this idea of this bird that Cyrus doesn’t even see. He thinks she’s probably making it up, which is a sort of metaphor for anxiety. And then I sort of love the double whammy of her telling the others about it and then they seem overly concerned.