The Birds

Best of Alfred Hitchcock


Alfred Hitchcock is my favourite film director of all-time, as he is the master of suspense. What I particularly enjoy about Hitchcock films is how he takes ordinary people and places them in extraordinary circumstances where they face increasing jeopardy from an outside force. This allows the audience to identify with the main characters. Here, Hitchcock takes the audience on a ride, continually raising the stakes as the film moves towards its climax. Although he never won an Oscar for Best Director, he has received numerous awards and nominations during his career.

In order, here are my favourite Hitchcock movies:

  1. Rear Window (1954)
  2. Vertigo (1958)
  3. Rebecca (1940)
  4. Strangers on a Train (1951)
  5. Psycho (1960)
  6. North by Northwest (1959)
  7. Suspicion (1941)
  8. Dial M for Murder (1954)
  9. Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
  10. Spellbound (1945)
  11. Rope (1948)
  12. The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
  13. Notorious (1946)
  14. To Catch a Thief (1955)
  15. Lifeboat (1944)
  16. Foreign Correspondent (1940)
  17. The Birds (1963)
  18. The 39 Steps (1935)
  19. The Lady Vanishes (1938)
  20. The Trouble with Harry (1955)
  21. The Wrong Man (1956)
  22. I Confess (1953)
  23. Stage Fright (1950)
  24. Sabotage (1936)
  25. Marnie (1964)
  26. Frenzy (1972)
  27. Topaz (1969)
  28. Family Plot (1976)

I have always loved how Hitchcock described the art of creating suspense in a film:

“Imagine a restaurant where there’s is a ticking bomb under the table, and we in the audience know it’s going to go off in fifteen minutes.  Now imagine one of the characters knows it as well, but can’t reveal it.  With this, the suspense ratchets to another level. Not only are we aware of the impending explosion, we share in the character’s anxiety to get away and the excruciating effort of acting totally unconcerned even as the bomb ticks down.  The emotional connection we have to a character for whom this situation is a matter of life or death makes the suspense we feel that much greater.”

Best Scary Movies of All-Time


Ever since I was a small child, I loved scary movies. I remember sneaking into the house and watching Siesta Cinema’s afternoon showing of War of the Worlds and then imaging that the light posts in our neighbourhood were alien spacecraft sent to destroy the earth.  I have not out grown my love of being scared by a great horror movie. 

Here are my favourite Scary Movies of  all-time:

  1. Alien  (1979)
  2. The Exorcist (1973)
  3. Psycho  (1960)
  4. The Silence of the Lambs (1991) 
  5. King Kong (1933)
  6. The Sixth Sense (1999)
  7. Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
  8. Bride of Frankenstein  (1935)
  9. Carrie (1976)
  10. The Haunting  (1963)
  11. The Others  (2001)
  12. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
  13. Seven (1995)
  14. The Omen (1976)
  15. Don’t Look Now (1973) 
  16. The Shining (1980) 
  17. The Wicker Man (1973) 
  18. Jaws  (1975)
  19. 28 Days Later (2002)
  20. Frankenstein (1931)
  21. Poltergeist (1982) 
  22. The Vanishing (1988)
  23. The Birds  (1963)
  24. The Innocents (1961)
  25. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
  26. Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte  (1964)
  27. Halloween (1978)
  28. Cat People  (1942)
  29. Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
  30. Scream  (1996)
  31. Les Diaboliques (1955)
  32. Audition (1999)
  33. Dracula (1931)
  34. Wolfen (1981)
  35. The Bad Seed (1956) 
  36. Let the Right One In (2008) 
  37. The Thing from Another World (1951) 
  38. The Ring (2002) 
  39. The War of the Worlds (1953)
  40. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
  41. Nosferatu (1922)
  42. Repulsion (1965)
  43. The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976)
  44. M (1931)
  45. The Lost Boys  (1987)
  46. Misery (1990) 
  47. Night of the Living Dead (1968)
  48. Wait Until Dark (1967)
  49. Ginger Snaps (2000)
  50. The Descent (2005)
  51. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)
  52. Fright Night (1985)
  53. Near Dark (1987)
  54. The Wolf Man (1941) 
  55. Session 9 (2001)
  56. A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)
  57. An American Werewolf In London (1981)
  58. Videodrome (1983)
  59. I’m Not Scared (2003)
  60. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
  61. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
  62. The Grudge (2004) / Ju-on: The Grudge (2002)
  63. Frailty (2001)
  64. The Hunger (1983) 
  65. The Dead Zone (1983)
  66. Cat People (1982) 
  67. Dressed to Kill (1980)
  68. The Mummy (1932)
  69. The Fly (1986)
  70. Village of the Damned (1960)
  71. Below (2002)
  72. Altered States (1980)
  73. The Collector (1965)
  74. The Amityville Horror (1979)
  75. The Legend of Hell House (1973)
  76. The Changeling (1980)
  77. The Uninvited (1944)
  78. The Evil Dead (1981)
  79. Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001)
  80. The Dead Zone (1983)
  81. The Return (2006)
  82. The Mothman Prophecies (2002)
  83. The Eye (2002)
  84. The Messengers (2007)
  85. Peeping Tom (1960)
  86. Hellraiser (1987)
  87. Pitch Black (2000)
  88. Carnival of Souls (1962)
  89. The Mummy (1932)
  90. Sisters (1973) 
  91. Burnt Offerings (1976)
  92. The Stepford Wives (1975) 
  93. Black Christmas (1974) 
  94. Dawn of the Dead (1978)
  95. The Cell (2000)
  96. The Company of Wolves (1984)
  97. Blood and Chocolate (2007)
  98. House of Wax (1953)
  99. The Mist (2007)
  100. Saw (2004)
  101. The Thing (1982)
  102. Freaks (1932)
  103. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
  104. Stir of Echoes (1999)
  105. The Curse of the Cat People (1944)
  106. Underworld (2003)
  107. 30 Days of Night (2007)
  108. Dead Calm (1989)
  109. Silver Bullet (1985)
  110. Them! (1954)
  111. Magic (1978)
  112. The Other (1972)
  113. Insidious (2010)
  114. Dawn of the Dead (2004)
  115. The Gift (2000)
  116. The Skeleton Key (2005)
  117. Secret Window (2004) 
  118. Mimic (1997)
  119. The Howling (1981)
  120. Identity (2003)
  121. 1408 (2007)
  122. What Lies Beneath (2000)
  123. Dark Water (2005)/Honogurai mizu no soko kara (2002)
  124. Gothika (2003)
  125. The Crazies (2010)
  126. Stigmata (1999)
  127. The Relic (1997)
  128. Suspiria (1977)
  129. Needful Things (1993)
  130. The Haunting in Connecticut (2009)
  131. Case 39 (2009)
  132. The Exorcist III (1990) 
  133. Paranormal Activity (2007)
  134. The Seventh Sign (1988)
  135. Hostel (2005)
  136. The Strangers (2008)
  137. I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)
  138. Scream 2 (1997)
  139. Eyes of Laura Mars  (1978)
  140. Dog Soldiers (2002)
  141. FeardotCom (2002) 
  142. Race with the Devil (1975)
  143. Child’s Play (1988)
  144. The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)
  145. Boogeyman (2005)
  146. They (2002)
  147. The Brood (1979)
  148. New Nightmare (1994)
  149. An American Haunting (2005)
  150. Demon Seed (1977)
  151. Urban Legend (1998)
  152. Candyman (1992)
  153. Scream 3 (2000)
  154. Wolf Creek (2005)
  155. Joy Ride (2001)
  156. Infection (2004)
  157. The Fog (1980)
  158. Darkness Falls (2003)
  159. Vanishing on 7th Street (2010)
  160. Jeepers Creepers (2001)
  161. Ravenous (1999)
  162. Cabin Fever (2002)
  163. Hollow Man (2000)
  164. The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988)
  165. The Hills Have Eyes (1977) 
  166. Devil (2010)
  167. Isle of the Dead (1945)
  168. The Ghost Ship (1943)
  169. The Blair Witch Project (1999)
  170. Friday the 13th (1980)
  171. Dementia 13 (1963)
  172. Ghost Ship (2002)
  173. The Funhouse (1981)
  174. Bless the Child (2000)
  175. Lost Souls (2000)