The old Alfred Hitchcock chiller-diller movie Psycho was on TV yesterday, so, of course, I had to watch it again. My first viewing was when I was a college senior at the Sunday night "free flick" on campus. I went by myself, which was a big mistake because the walk home made me jittery. I kept sensing that homicidal Norman Bates was lurking in the bushes, ready to jump out at me with his carving knife. I still can't take a shower without thinking of him, dressed in shadowy drag, swiping open the curtain and hacking away. And, I never take a shower in a motel. Never!
One day last week I was walking to town when another Hitchcock thriller came to mind. A strange, ear-piercing cry drew my attention to the trees, where hundreds of large black birds perched. I stopped to stare at them, wondering why they were squawking up such a frenzy. Were they hungry....for me???? As I approached an old schoolyard, I remembered the scene in The Birds when actress Tippi Hedren sat outside a schoolhouse listening to children inside innocently singing a repetitious ditty ("....risselty, rosselty, hey donny, dosselty, now, now, now....") while menacing crows flocked to the playground, roosting on the monkey bars. With each chorus of the song, more and more maniacal birds gathered for the attack. Shudder!!
I love a good movie scare now and then, as long as it is, in Norman Bates's creepy words, "....harmless, harmless as a stuffed bird."
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