The Birds (1963) - Tippi Hedren, Rod Taylor, Jessica Tandy

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, based on the 1952 short story by Daphne du Maurier. The plot follows Tippi Hedren’s Melanie Daniels as she follows her love interest, Mitch (Rod Taylor), to Bodega Bay, California. However, things soon go awry as the location becomes the centre of a series of unexplained and deadly bird attacks. This gripping thriller combines the human, psychological horror Hitchcock perfected with Psycho (1960) and mother nature’s terror, with both elements experienced by the viewer. This is augmented by the scope and power of the danger being essentially unfathomable to humans. Screenwriter Evan Hunter deserves considerable praise on this front. Not only did he help Hitchcock adapt du Maurier’s work, but he suggested that The Birds metamorphose from something resembling a screwball comedy into what he described as “stark terror”.