12 Best Movies About The End Of The World

The world is pecked to pieces in Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 classic The Birds. Based on the 1952 short story by Daphne du Maurier, it sees a Californian town set upon suddenly and inexplicably by swarms of vicious birds. While we don't claim to be ornithologists, we wouldn't sum it up with the blanket term 'birds' if they all weren't working together. That's right, Tippi Hedren's Melanie Daniels character finds herself under the attack of crows and gulls, sparrows and more bloody gulls, all working together with the sole aim of turning the tables on wingless humanity.

A master of suspense, Hitchcock usually weaves a plot so intricate that there are no loose ends by the time the credits roll. This is something of an anomaly in his filmography and it's all the better for it. We don't know why the birds attacked to begin with and we're none the wiser by the end of the movie when reports flood in from other nearby towns about similar attacks. If it wasn't for the informative title, we would be as blindsided as the characters.

In recent years, The Birds has been put back under the microscope as Hitchcock's behaviour has been re-examined. Hedren said that he was abusive and that he conducted himself in an inappropriate way, an accusation that has levelled at him before. Coincidentally, one of the main themes of the movie is the relationship between men and women. We prefer the reading that it's nature lashing out at its abuser, another hot topic in the current climate.