Alfred Hitchcock often referred to his style of film making as "pure cinema" - using camera movement, editing, music and sound to tell stories that would be impossible in any other medium. Even as early as the 1920s, while his contemporaries were simply filming stage plays, Hitchcock was creating a cinematic language that has endured and influenced every filmmaker who came after him. This in-depth documentary allows directors such as William Friedkin, Martin Scorsese and Guillermo del Toro to examine the power and mastery of Hitchcock's cinematic style, breaking down such signature sequences as the bell tower scene in Vertigo, the attic attack in The Birds and the shower scene in Psycho.