Recently, I’ve been trying to convince a lot of my friends to watch my favorite (favorite = better than any other movie I’ve ever watched) movie: The Silence of the Lambs. It’s been my favorite for an incredibly long time – I fell in love with it the moment I first watched it (I was about 9), and I still can’t quite explain why. I have always loved watching crime documenteries, reading and researching about crime and psychology and this movie perfectly captured all of my interests and I just couldn’t get it out of my head for months. Maybe it’s the way the story is built around such a deep psychological battle rather than just action, but it completely mesmerized me and when I found out that it wasn’t based on a true story, I couldn’t believe it.
Every single aspect and plot twist in Silence of the Lambs is so fascinating and incredibly thought-through. Not only is it extremely realistic (it was based on the actual serial killer called “Buffalo Bill”, but the story isn’t actually true) but also very entertaining to watch. It plays with fear – not through cheap horror, but through really unsettling dialogue, tension and the feeling that the main character, Hannibal Lecter, is always one step ahead. It’s so fascinating to watch a movie where the most terrifying character isn’t the one chasing people through dark alleys but is sitting completely still, speaking in a clam, intelligent voice, peeling apart someone’s mind like a puzzle. The actual psychological depth of the film is what interests me the most. Clarice Starling, an FBI trainee, is forced to seek the help of Hannibal Lecter to catch another serial killer, Buffalo Bill. What makes their “relationship” so interesting is that while she is trying to analyze him, he is analyzing her. Every conversation between them feels like a “mental chess match”, because while Hannibal is picking apart her past, her fears, she is trying to use his knowledge as a “retired serial killer” to find other criminals. There’s something about the way he “dissects” people, that makes him one of the most interesting characters I have ever seen.
What makes this film even better, is that it’s part of a larger collection of movies. Red Dragon talks about Hannibal’s earlier years and serves as a prequel, while Hannibal follows his life after escaping captivity (after Silence of the Lambs) and Hannibal Rising is all about his childhood and origins, and gives a lot of insight into how he became the figure and serial killer we know. I love how all these movies intertwine and connect, revealing more layers of Hannibal’s character and the investigations around him. Every time I rewatch these movies, I seem to discover something new about the story – they’re brilliant. So yeah, I’ll probably keep trying to convince my friends to watch them – because, honestly, they’re missing out.