This movie gave me nightmares (My favorite Hitchcock)

Rating: 8/10 (7 March 2015)

Though it's not considered one of his masterpieces, 1963's The Birds is my favorite Alfred Hitchcock movie, a film that not only provides genuine scares, but is a master class in the art of cinematic suspense.
Based on a short story by Daphne Du Maurier, this is the story of a wealthy socialite from San Francisco named Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren), who travels to a small Northern Californian town called Bodega Bay to pursue a possible relationship with the town's most eligible bachelor, Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) and, upon her arrival, a series of unmotivated attacks by birds end up terrorizing the entire town.
Other than the technical mastery and animal training that had to be involved in getting these birds to do what they were supposed to do when they are supposed to do it, this film shows what a master Hitchcock was at building suspense...watch the scene where Melanie is sitting on a bench smoking a cigarette while birds begin gathering on a jungle gym behind her or the scene before the final attack where Melanie, Mitch, his mother, and kid sister are sitting in the front room of the Brenner home waiting for a bird attack on the house. The suspense created in these scenes will have you either holding your breath or screaming at the screen for the characters to wake up.
The wooden performances, especially Hedren, are irrelevant to the artistry that is Hitchcock that makes this classic a film that gave me nightmares for months and to this day, I still get very nervous when I see 3 or more birds gather in one location.