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The Birds

Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds

1963

Alfred Hitchcock

Tippi Hedren, Rod Taylor, Jessica Tandy, Suzanne Pleshette ...

7.8

57,002

Horror Spoiled socialite and notorious practical joker Melanie Daniels is shopping in a San Francisco pet store when she meets Mitch Brenner. Mitch is looking to buy a pair of love birds for his young sister's birthday; he recognizes Melanie but pretends to mistake her for an assistant. She decides to get her own back by buying the birds and driving up to the quiet coastal town of Bodega Bay, where Mitch spends his weekends with his sister and ... [+]

	Media	Author	Review
		James Powers The Hollywood Reporter	"Like most good horror stories it is based on a simple 'what [if]' premise, with the abnormal substituted for the normal (...) Robert Burks' Technicolor photography is fine"
		Xan Brooks The Guardian	"The essential Hitchcock movie, the purest and most confident (...) Every time I watch it, I find myself more impressed with its daring, audacity and command of its material."
		Tom Milne Time Out	"This is Hitchcock at his best (...) It's fierce and Freudian as well as great cinematic fun"
		Variety	"The premise is fascinating (...) These bird raids are captivatingly bizarre and terrifying (...) Where the scenario and picture slip is in the sphere of the human element"
		Kim Newman Empire	"Genuinely disturbing thriller classic from the master of suspense (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Dave Kehr Chicago Reader	"Alfred Hitchcock's most abstract film (1963) and perhaps his subtlest, still yielding new meanings and inflections after a dozen or more viewings."
		Paul Tatara CNN	"Even at 35, 'The Birds' still shocking, nutty"
		Alastair Sooke Telegraph	"A peerless horror film (...) The bird-attack sequences are tremendously complex (...) and the absence of a score renders the horror more immediate (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Alan Jones Radio Times	"It is now rivalled only by 'Vertigo' or 'Psycho' (...) Hitchcock is also having a laugh (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Peter Hartlaub SFGATE	"'The Birds', released in 1963, is the movie we need in 2018"

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