Why Hitchcock never watched his own movies: The reason will puzzle you

The director had a whole set of rare phobias.

Alfred Hitchcock was an extraordinary person. Even those close to him sometimes treated him cautiously due to his tendency for extravagant acts. Of course, for a creative person, this is a big plus. Hitchcock's boundless imagination was reflected in his films.

The main popularizer of suspense (a narrative technique that creates anxiety and tension) often said that he did not watch his own films. Paradoxically, the director was afraid to face his own creations. "My own films scare me," he admitted. "I never go to watch them. I don't know how people can endure watching my films."
A close-up of Alfred Hitchcock's face, with his hands held out in a stop sign
Alfred Hitchcock never watched his own films
Hitchcock had other peculiarities, which he did not like to voice publicly, out of a sense of shame or embarrassment. For instance, the director never got behind the wheel of a car. But not because he feared the risk of accidents. The trigger for him on the road was the police—he feared that sooner or later he would be stopped by the authorities, reports zoomboola.com.

A childhood psychological trauma was to blame. His father decided to punish him for a prank and locked him in a police station for a few minutes, explaining that this is what happens to all "bad" people. Since then, Hitchcock never went near people in uniform, and the fear of being unjustly accused for a silly mistake was forever ingrained in him.
The director also suffered from ovophobia. Not only eggs but all oval-shaped objects made him shudder. And if an egg was served to him in a restaurant, the waiter could expect it to be thrown directly at him in retaliation.

However, Hitchcock did not spare others. Knowing his friends' weak spots, he would deliberately press on them. To someone who couldn't stand the smell of fish, he would present an entire dish of seafood delicacies. And on the set of his film "The 39 Steps" (1935), the director nearly provoked a panic attack among the actors by making them spend almost an entire day in handcuffs. He then calmly stated that he had simply lost the keys to them.