Tilted Terror

Rating: 9/10 (27 April 2006)

The narrative here is quite brilliant...the first half is spent building a world through the central metaphor of 'caged lovebirds'. Then it spends the second half turning that on its head by restructuring the perception of the cage.
The master, Hitchcock, uses gradual 'tilts' before flipping us...the tilting gag birds in the sports car, the tilted restaurant door's window, the tilted 'God looking down' perspective...small details indicative of the whole, and at the end, we find ourselves completely captivated. I imagine the original critics were just as clueless as the besieged townsfolk. Hitchcock, winking at us all along, exaggerates them as much as he can to make his point.
Along the way there is NO soundtrack, and NO gratuitous screaming, heightening the creeping sense of terror (NOT 'horror', a completely different beast...)
See this on a dark night for a truly squirm inducing, visceral thrill.