Horror Movie Marathon Day 4 – Hitchcock

You can’t do a horror marathon in October and not include some Alfred Hitchcock. Listed here are my top five from his body of work.

1. Rear Window – Number seven on my all time favorites list. James Stewart and Grace Kelly star in this comedy thriller about a photographer trapped at home in a wheel chair. His boredom leads him to spy on his neighbors. He sees a murder. Grace Kelly helps him investigate.
2. The Birds – The Birds comes in a very close second to Rear Window. Tippi Hedren, Rod Taylor, and Jessica Tandy bring the characters to life surprisingly well as their town is terrorized by birds. The effects are laughable now, but at the time were pretty ground breaking.
3. Psycho – As if I would leave this off the list. A woman leaves town with stolen money to surprise her boyfriend. She happens across the Bates Motel. Norman Bates takes a liking to her and doesn’t let her leave alive. It’s a gutsy move to kill your protagonist halfway through the movie, but this one does it flawlessly.
4. Rebecca – Joan Fontaine is amazing in this. Her performance really makes the movie in this ghost story about a man who brings a new wife home to a seemingly haunted house. It is also the only one fo Hitchcock’s films to win a Best Picture Oscar.
5. Marnie – Tippi Hedren’s performance in this will make you forget that Sean Connery is her costar. The title character has serious psychological issues, but her new husband tries to get to the bottom of them anyway.