Halloween season
simply isn’t Halloween season without a regular dose of golden age Universal
horror (1923-1963). Every day this October, I’ll be giving you a steady IV drip
of it by counting down Psychobabble’s
31 Favorite Universal Horrors!
#7. The Birds
(1963- dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
Hitchcock’s horrors of the early sixties really mark the
beginning of a new age of horror distinct from the days of Dracula,
Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, and The Gill Man. They are utterly contemporary,
psychologically complex, graphically violent, and overtly sexual. In the case
of The Birds, Hitchcock’s brand of
horror is also very colorful. Because of its complete cinematic sophistication,
it may be a little unfair to rank The
Birds against most of the other movies in this series, but it does deserve
a place here. Hitchcock was a shit, and it’s hard to find Melanie Daniels’s
terror entertaining knowing what we know about what the director put Tippi
Hedren through, but his artistry is unassailable. The playground, children’s
party, and yes, attic sequences constitute a master’s class in establishing
suspense, delivering terrifying action, editing, sound, acting, and everything
else that goes into making a superior horror movie. The Birds is one of the most superior of all.
