October is the perfect time to watch classic horror movies, i.e. slasher films like A Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween or more recent "elevated horror" like The Babadook, The Witch or It Follows. Then there's the Master of Suspense himself, Alfred Hitchcock, with two of his most iconic movies now available to stream on Netflix that should be instant additions to your Halloween viewing plans.
Psycho and The Birds, which Hitchcock actually made back-to-back in 1960 and 1963 respectively, are part of your viewing options on Netflix. Psycho follows Marion Crane, who when on the run after stealing money from her boss stops at the motel for a night and comes in contact with its repressed owner, Norman Bates, and his overbearing mother. Janet Leigh, Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles and John Gavin star in the movie that was nominated for four Oscars and is widely considered one of the greatest movies ever made (WTW has it on our list of 100 best movies of all time).
Meanwhile, The Birds stars Tippi Hedren as a San Francisco socialite who pursues a man she's interested in to a small Northern California town where she and others unexpectedly begin to be attacked by birds. The Birds also stars Rod Taylor, Jessica Tandy and Veronica Cartwright.
Hitchcock is considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, whose penchant for crafting thrilling sequences earned him the nickname of "Master of Suspense." His career was highlighted by movies like the Best Picture winning Rebecca, Shadow of a Doubt, Notorious, Rope, Strangers on a Train, Rear Window, Vertigo and North by Northwest. Yet despite directing all these classic movies, he somehow never won the Best Director Oscar, though he was nominated five times, including one for Psycho, and eventually was awarded an Honorary Oscar. Psycho and The Birds are his last two undeniable masterpieces.
Now let me explain why these movies need to be part of your Halloween viewing. If you know very little about Psycho, I won't spoil it for you here to let you discover all the thrills and scares for yourself. But as someone who knew many of the key details before I saw it I can say it did not hinder my enjoyment of the movie nor how it got me jumping from my seat. That's because of Hitchcock's mastery to build the tension in a scene and then release it at just the right moment, which in Psycho he amplifies with the high-pitched strings of the movie's iconic score. Then that final shot will leave you with chills.
For The Birds, the summation we gave of the plot is pretty much it — birds attack people. But again Hitchcock and his cinematographer, Robert Burks, film the birds in a way that makes these things we see everyday some of the most menacing things you can imagine.
A Netflix subscription is going to be required if you want to watch Psycho and The Birds on the streaming platform. But good news is that they are also available via digital on-demand platforms if you do not have a Netflix account.
