30 Day Horror Challenge: Day 20

Animals can be the perfect killers on the screen. They are primal, cunning and no one ever suspects them. Animals can blend in to the surroundings and sneak up on you. They can also be nice one moment and turn unexpectedly the next. There have been so many killer animal movies that now filmmakers combine two or more animals to make something scary and laughable.

Your favorite horror film involving a killer animal.

The Birds (1963)

Much like Hitchcock's other movies from this period, the film starts out in one place and ends up in a completely different direction. What is more commonplace now, caused a sensation in the early sixties. Unlike Psycho, there wasn't a misdirection of a character and story. This time only the story took a turn.

If you just came for the Hitchcock cameo, it's in the first few minutes. He leaves the pet shop with two white terriers. If you stay, you'll be treated to a strange and beautiful tale. Strange, as it doesn't have a proper ending. Beautiful, as in the crafting of this story.

The inspiration for this film came from a real life incident in California where residents awoke to find their rooftops and the streets covered in dead birds. The puzzling spectacle was half explained away as shellfish poisoning. Hitchcock kept the birds, left out the poisoning, and ran with it.

Over the course of a few days, residents of a harbor town in California are attacked in separate incidents by birds. The attacks start escalating in frequency and in violence. The survivors must band together to save themselves. While the ending answers no lingering questions, it does provide a breathtaking scene.