#12 - Silence of the Lambs

Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Directed by: Jonathan Demme. Written by: Ted Tally based on the novel by Thomas Harris.

Plot: An FBI n00b (Jodi Foster) on the trail of a serial killer (Ted Levine) must recruit the help of another serial killer who I guess was also a profiler or something before he was put away (Anthony Hopkins). Put that way, this movie sounds super sleazy. Whoo.

Review: Guh. I didn't write anything for this one either. Jeez. Um. This movie is sort of weird. I mean, it seems somewhat unconventional, at least to me.

I guess it isn't really that weird - the agent-seeks-murderer-to-catch-other-murderer theme is fairly common, it just isn't usually done that well. It's more sleazy. Like, you know, the two of them have to be in a car together for the whole movie, or a plane, or some shit like that and it's all 'ooh, who's gonna kill who and when and why and blah'. I can't think of any examples but you know what I'm talking about.

This is done sort of differently. It's practically two movies. First we have the plot about the main serial killer who is doing his thing, keeping a lady in a pit, being all weird, makin a suit out of skin. Pretty standard torture-porn stuff, only he doesn't actually kill anybody IN the movie (he has a couple victims under his belt, so to speak, but they die before the start of the flick). Not that interesting apart from the fact that it's shot well and Ted Levine is fucking weird.

And then there's the Jodi Foster-Anthony Hopkins plot which is vastly more engrossing. Both of them are fantastic and I hate to use the word 'chemistry' but I guess it applies here pretty well. I always love Jodi Foster. I could watch her changing lighbulbs and it would probably freak me out (whenever she acts stressed it makes me stressed. If you put a lump of coal up my ass, by the end of Panic Room you'd have a diamond).

This is also one of Anthony Hopkins' better performances. He's borderline obnoxious, like, what accent is that exactly (according to the latest shitty sequel, he's... what? Slovenian or something? Lithuanian? I don't know. Gaspard Ulliel is French)? I always though he was supposed to be an American accent but Anthony Hopkins was just doing a really shitty job. Go figure. But he's still kind of hot.

Anyway, yeah, this is a good flick. One of the better serial killer movies ever, that's for sure.

Favourite Part: I liked buddy's skin suit, I thought it was cool. I kinda want one, actually.

Other versions: Apparently there is an Indian remake called Sangharsh. WTF.

Sequels: Hannibal, which was sort of mediocre. Two prequels, Red Dragon which was actually pretty good, and the aforementioned Hannibal Rising which was one of the worst movies I've seen this year.

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