While an afternoon movie offers a welcome escape from the heat, summer choices are slim pickings. Most are action-packed and visually stunning, but go heavy on the special effects and sprinkle in the plot.
Dartmouth Film Society hopes to reverse this trend with a series of Alfred Hitchcock movies screened throughout the term. A filmmaking master and father of the thriller-horror genre, Hitchcockss films are filled to the brim with psychological wit, suspense and emotion a welcome relief from 3D explosions and men in capes.
The nine-part installment includes films from various thriller sub-genres and periods of Hitchcock's career. His most famous movie, "Psycho" (1960), will play on Aug. 4, while the less popular but no less enthralling "Notorious" (1946) will play on July 7.
DFS director and series organizer Johanna Evans said she is excited for the program.
"When I was about 11 or 12, my family went through and watched all the Hitchcocks over the course of the summer," Evans said. "Personally, I have Hitchcock and summer linked very closely together."
Evans said she carefully chose each film for the series, balancing popular hits with others that are lesser known.
"A third of them are my personal favorites, a third are ones that we don't play very often and a couple that people have seen before , but [are] so cool seeing in a theater," she said.
DFS hopes to draw audiences with the attraction of watching Hitchcock on the big screen in the company of other white-knuckled, jaw-grinding viewers. The series will be screened in Loew Auditorium in the Black Family Visual Arts Center, which seats 200 people.
Viewing the films in theater will provide an exciting experience for even seasoned Hitchcock fans, said Katie Kilkenny '14, a directorate member of the Dartmouth Film Society. She said the suspense elements of the Hitchcock's plots are even more thrilling when watching the films in a large group.
"There's something about seeing Hitchcock on the big screen that can't be duplicated," she said. "It's seeing it the way it was supposed to be seen,"
Evans pointed to the social aspect of experiencing the Hitchcock's horror in theaters.
"Seeing these films with a much larger audience is going to give you the kind of group panic," Evans said. "The humor and horror are infectious."
Evans said she is especially excited to see "Vertigo," (1958) widely considered one of Hitchcock's most thrilling and psychologically manipulative. The film will be screened on July 28.
"In Vertigo,' you begin to doubt your own mind," Evans said. "You see the character getting wrapped up in it, and you leave the theater feeling really unnerved."
Kilkenny called it akin to Christopher Nolan using IMAX.
"It's almost like an early version of IMAX," she added.
