Universal Pictures will turn a century old on April 30, and in advance of their 100th birthday, the studio has trotted out a new (shiny!) logo that touts their triple-digit age. Why they didn’t get Willard Scott to do one of those Smuckers Jam birthday label shout-out things on The Today Show, I simply don’t know, but there’s still time! Of course, that new logo is neat and all (and, again, shiny!), but what’s most exciting about this news is the studio’s announcement that they will also celebrate their centennial with the restoration of thirteen of its most famous films. THR reports that the studio has restored All Quiet on the Western Front, The Birds, Abbott and Costello’s Buck Privates, Dracula (1931), the Spanish-language Dracula (which was filmed on the same set at night), Frankenstein, Jaws, Schindler’s List, Out of Africa, Pillow Talk, Bride of Frankenstein, The Sting, and To Kill a Mockingbird. The studio plans to release the restorations throughout 2012. Many of the restorations will be sold in “collectible book style packaging with memorabilia.” Moreover, Universal is reportedly quite happy with the work on previously damaged films, particularly when it comes to crisper sound in Frankenstein and “appalling graininess” in To Kill a Mockingbird. Also, fans of Out of Africa can breathe a sigh of relief – as “Meryl Streep loses a weird wobble in her walk possibly caused by projectors that enlarged the sprocket holes.” I wish it was Universal’s 100th birthday every day!

We continue our journey through a month of frightening, bloody and violent films. For more, check out our 31 Days of Horror homepage. Synopsis: Short version: Birds realize they outnumber humans about a million to 1 and decide strips of bread just aren’t cutting it any more. Worldwide attack ensues. Long version: Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren), young, San Francisco socialite, stalks follows a potential boyfriend, the handsome Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor), to his lakeside home in the Northern California town of Bodega Bay. There, Melanie meets his mother (Jessica Tandy) and young sister (Veronica Cartwright), and become acquainted with the small town. However, strange things are about to take place. Out of nowhere, the local members of the Avian 404 – read, the birds – decide it’s high time to turn their beaks and claws on the human population. Hitting sporadically and in large swarms, the birds begin attacking the fine people of Bodega Bay. The residents, some believing it to be a sign of the apocalypse, others not having a clue why this is happening, but all of them scared senseless, try to take refuge indoors. But it soon dawns on them that their only way of survival is to escape the town.

Every day, come rain or shine or internet tubes breaking, Film School Rejects showcases a trailer from the past. You know what would sell the hell out of a movie? Alfred Hitchcock giving a nature documentary presentation about the nobility and history of our winged friends, and their relationship to human beings. Through dry positivity, it seems clear which side Hitchcock comes down on. We use them for hats, we kill them into extinction, we eat them and their unborn young. No wonder they hate Tippi Hedron. Check out the trailer for yourself:

As we all know, the world is going to end in 2036 after mankind’s preventative measures against global warming attract a meteor the size of Nigeria and pull it right down on top of New Italy. Yet, even though we’re armed with this powerful knowledge, we still lose our minds a little bit when we see signs of natural disaster right out of our religious texts. So why are we so concerned with the end of all things? NASA thinks movies are the culprit, an assertion that’s entirely correct.

Every week in October, Criterion Files will be bringing you a horror movie from the archives of classic cinema or the hallways of the arthouse. This week’s entry takes a look at Alfred Hitchcock’s Hollywood debut, Rebecca (1940). While some would argue (and by “some” I mean Cole Abaius) that Hitchcock only made two films that could uncontestably be identified as horror – Psycho (1960) and The Birds (1963) – Rebecca is an interesting point of inception for themes covered throughout the auteur’s American career and is a film that engages in literary forms of the horror genre. Especially when seen as a ghost story.

Platinum Dunes producer Brad Fuller took time away from talking about A Nightmare on Elm Street to chat with us about their planned remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds.

Let me start with one very important commandment that must be obeyed in the world of film: Thou shalt not remake Casablanca, Citizen Kane, Gone With The Wind, 2001 a Space Odyssey (to name a handful of classic films) and anything directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Anything. Even if one day a reel containing a commercial shot by the man shows up, it cannot be remade.

This week, on a very special episode of Reject Radio, we delve deep into the world of why The Oscars should nominate more populist best pictures. And we rob a bank.

Once upon a time Daphne Du Maurier wrote a neat little short story about birds run amok called The Birds. Oh, how far we’ve fallen since then.

To movie critics (including myself): yer doin’ it wrong.

If it’s hot where you live, but you still feel like you haven’t gotten all you can out of summer and it’s relentless, unforgiving, soul-crushing heat, here are ten movies you can watch that’ll help change your mind and keep you indoors.