Hitchcock Goodness

Last night, I exposed my friends to The Birds for our July Old Movie Night. Even though about half the group had already seen it, people were excited. And rightly so. It's an amazing movie.

Yes, it's corny. And yes, we spent a lot of time just making fun of it. But every so often I had to stop making fun of it to freak out. There are some brilliantly disturbing moments, and despite the sometimes painfully fake special effects, I can't help but become completely engrossed in the film. Neither could anyone else, and I believe everyone was at least slightly nervous once or twice throughout the film. How can you not be?

I started out the evening by sharing my Veronica Cartwright story with the group. They were impressed, and rightly so. We also threw a stuffed animal duck at people as they walked in the door. It was supposed to be attacking them, but mostly they just watched with a confused stare as it flew past. We also served buffalo wings, which was very clever, I thought.

This is what I love about The Birds:

- The scene where Tippi Hedren is completely unaware of the fact that crows are taking over the playground behind her.

- No music! There's no musical score for this film, just a few mildly creepy songs and lots of bird noises.

- The fact that there's really no resolution. I think the ending upsets people at first. They just leave, without any explanation as to why the birds attacked or how they're going to be stopped. Everyone last night was a little shocked that it just ended with them driving away, but I like it that way. It leaves you with a creepy feeling.

And finally, I ate lunch outside at work today and there were lots of seagulls making lots of noise in the parking lot next door to us. I got a little nervous.