The Birds (1963)

The Birds
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
(1963)

It may seem silly at first to make a scary movie about birds, but Hitchcock was an intuitive master of the human unconscious, and he could have found the terrifying aspect of marshmallows if he had tried. The Birds draws you in with a story about some humans beings and slowly ratchets up the tension until the sleepy California coastal town of Bodega Bay is suddenly and comprehensively attacked by every local member of the class Aves. There is no explanation for why, and there isn't even a cluster of immoral behavior on the part of the people to justify their victimization.

Fun fact: There is no musical score for the film, but the bird sound effects were one of the first uses of electronic synthesizers in a major motion picture.