The iconic filmmaker pointed out one particular movie as his “most terrifying,” yet looking back, it’s difficult to agree with him. As the man known as the Master of Suspense, Hitchcock’s career is packed with classic mysteries, thrillers, and horror movies, and he’s widely lauded as one of the most influential directors of the 20th century. With the power to keep viewers on the edge of their seats and constantly guessing throughout his films’ runtime, Hitchcock produced more enduring masterpieces than most directors managed to make movies at all.

The best Alfred Hitchcock films have endured throughout the decades, and his many shocking twists and terrifying murder mysteries have become the stuff of Hollywood history. , so it’s not surprising that he would point out a specific movie and unquestionably call it his scariest. But, looking back on his statement, it’s clear that certain motives influenced this comment, and there are other movies in his vast filmography more worthy of the esteemed title of Hitchcock’s most frightening film.

In the official teaser trailer for The Birds back in 1963, Alfred Hitchcock warned viewers that his latest horror was “the most terrifying motion picture I have ever made.” This was a clever piece of promotion that made film fans stand up and take notice, as , terrifying thrillers, and menacing mysteries. As an adaptation of a terrifying short story by writer Daphne du Maurier, The Birds explored the consequences of sudden and violent bird attacks in Bodega Bay, California.

While many Hitchcock movies featured fearsome foes in the form of psychotic killers or cunning criminals, what made The Birds even spookier was that it was nature itself that was fighting back. The existential worries conjured by The Birds related to the unstoppable carnage birds could wreak upon society if they chose to make humanity suffer for their mistreatment. In Hitchcock’s trailer, he highlighted how we cage, kill, and even eat these winged creatures, and that they would have every reason to push back and say no more.

The Birds started with a great concept and was made even better by having a filmmaker as accomplished as Hitchcock in the director’s chair. With a real sense of mature terror, and instead offered a nuanced exploration of human society in a state of absolute peril. While this was truly scary and stands out as one of the director’s best films, it's a much different film released three years before that holds the title of Hitchcock’s scariest.

When it comes to Hitchcock’s most terrifying film, one movie springs to mind, and that’s Psycho. Featuring the iconic shower scene, a tense and unnerving score, and an all-time great performance from Anthony Perkins, not only does , but it also remains one of the most accomplished horror films ever made, even 65 years later. The Birds may have spooked viewers through an unknowable sense of menace, but the realistic threat of Norman Bates tapped into more urgent fears about the potential for a seemingly innocent person to reveal themselves as a cold-blooded killer.

Psycho rewrote the rulebook when it came to horror movies, as the way it killed off its main protagonist in the first act was unlike anything viewers had ever seen before. The reason the death of Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) was so shocking at the time was that viewers were expecting to follow her story until the very end, and with her death, Hitchcock kickstarted the slasher genre and influenced everything from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre to The Silence of the Lambs.

, timid boy-next-door type who was later revealed to be a hotbed of repressed trauma, fractured identity, and complex psychological issues. The fact that Norman was taking on the identity of his deceased, overbearing mother to enact his violence meant that his character blurred the lines between victim and villain. Psycho was complex and cryptic, and its dark conclusion gets under your skin in a way that most other horror movies don't.

While The Birds was an essential Hitchcock movie, if we were being totally honest, it doesn’t even rank as his second scariest release. Hitchcock began his filmmaking journey back in the silent era during the 1920s, and later thrillers like The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes helped shape the thriller genre as we know it today. With a wealth of experience behind him, Hitchcock made many terrifying movies that helped his films earn a reputation as some of the most highly anticipated releases of their era.

When it comes to films that could follow Psycho as Hitchcock’s second scariest, . As a psychological film noir about two men exchanging murders to try and commit the perfect crime, Strangers on a Train had a wicked worldview that made audiences feel they could become a target to any wild psychopath who happened to have a chance encounter with someone who held a vendetta against them. Dial M for Murder too was a fearful crime story about a rich playboy planning the death of his unfaithful wife.

While Hitchcock was known as the Master of Suspense, he was also a master of promotion and knew what he needed to say to ensure audiences turned up at the theater. Hitchcock revolutionized movie promotion and famously went to great lengths to maintain his films' allure, before seeing his version (via Variety.) With these tactics in mind, it’s not out of the question to think that Hitchcock may have been exaggerating when he called The Birds his “most terrifying” movie.

Even Hitchcock’s teaser trailer is a masterclass in how to gain an audience’s interest without spoiling the finer details of the movie. While most trailers today are made up almost entirely of footage from the film itself, Hitchcock’s teaser for featured him speaking directly to the camera and creating an unsettling atmosphere that gets you in the perfect mindframe for the film. Without ever spoiling anything, Hitchcock gets you thinking about the terrifying impact of a potential bird attack and merely offers enough hints to get you eager to go to the theater and find out for yourself.

Source: Variety