Hitchcockian Thrillers

During Alfred Hitchcock’s five-decade reign as the screen’s internationally celebrated Master of Suspense, he directed 53 motion pictures. In such Hitchcock gold standard classics as The 39 Steps, Rear Window, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho, and The Birds, he staked his claim as the architect, the O.G. of the thriller.

He laid down the rules and rhythm of the genre, created an immediately identifiable visual style, experimented constantly with technique, pushed boundaries, tweaked censors, and shattered the expectations of his audiences—along with their nerves. In exploiting his private fears and vulnerabilities, Hitchcock was as brilliant at making us think and feel as he was at making us scream and invading our nightmares.

His films elevated the form and were among the biggest box-office successes and most influential of their time. They were, and are, emulated for their fashion sense and, more lastingly, even nudged the culture forward by liberalizing attitudes toward cinematic violence and sexual frankness.

Hitchcockian Thrillers: Must-See Films in the Style of the Suspense Master is a curated, opinionated, authoritative, highly personal, lavishly illustrated guide to nine decades of international moviemaking featuring films by directors—beginning in the era of Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder, and Sir Carol Reed and moving right up through today’s David Fincher, Steven Soderbergh, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Martin Scorsese—who have all tried to ‘do a Hitchcock.’