I remember reading the original short story by Daphne du Maurier before ever watching Hitchcock's The Birds, and thinking how well written it was: concise, tight, packing a punch all in all. There was/is "Monte Verità " in the same tome, and this particular story fascinated me; unlike "The Birds", it's more like a novella, filled with mysterious details and displaying a haunting personality from the get-go.
