The Lodger (Directors Suite) (1927)

One of Hitchcock’s classic early silent films, The Lodger is aesthetically influenced by German Expressionism, a movement the great auteur came to love during his time in Germany. Based on the story of Jack the Ripper, The Lodger was the film on which Hitchcock found his much-lauded aesthetic, an expressionistic style to which Hitchcock stayed faithful for the entirety of his career.

A serial killer known as The Avenger is terrorising London, murdering pretty blonde women with alarming regularity. At the same time, a new lodger, Jonathan Drew, arrives at the Bloomsbury home of Mr. and Mrs. Bounting. Although the man has rather odd habits, the Bountings' daughter Daisy—a pretty blonde fashion model—finds him intriguing. As Daisy flirts with Jonathan, her police officer fiance, Joe, jealously begins to suspect the newcomer might be The Avenger.