With the notable exception of its monster movie/creature feature contingent, horror has never been one of my favourite movie genres, so my viewing history of such films contains as many gaps and holes in it as a piece of fine filigree lace or a hunk of finest Swiss cheese!
Every so often, however, I do make an attempt at amends to my feeble record of horror watching, and during the past 12 months(ish) I finally – finally! – got around to viewing three absolute classics from this genre. Namely, The Silence of the Lambs, A Nightmare On Elm Street, and The Howling. So here over the next few days are my thoughts about them, beginning today with The Silence of the Lambs.
On 13 December 2021, I filled another of the many gaping holes in my blockbuster movie viewing, due to my passion and over-riding preference for seeking out and watching lesser-known, esoteric films instead, by finally getting around to viewing – only 30 years after it was released – none other than the multi-Oscar-winning film The Silence of the Lambs!
Directed by Jonathan Demme, based upon the 1988 Thomas Harris novel of the same title, and released in 1991 by Orion Pictures, any movie that can win all of the 'Big Four' Academy Awards – Best Picture, Director, Leading Actor, and Leading Actress – as well as a fifth one for Best Adapted Screenplay, has to be something truly extraordinary, and this movie definitely was. Indeed, what can I say about it that hasn't already been said at greater length, in greater depth, and including greater detail by others? But here goes anyway.
Unless you've been living on the moon or down a cave since the onset of the 1990s, you'll know that the central character in The Silence of the Lambs is a brilliant but twisted psychologist whose cannibalistic tendencies have led to his being incarcerated within the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, boasting as much security as Fort Knox. However, he is sufficiently intrigued by a young rookie cop and her bravery in visiting his caged cell to seek his assistance in tracking down another warped serial killer for him to actually agree to do so, after a fashion…
Consequently, I was actually surprised by the relatively short amount of screen time occupied by Anthony Hopkins as Dr Hannibal 'The Cannibal' Lecter (less than 25 minutes out of this movie's 118-minute total running time), but he makes every second count, in mesmerisingly menacing fashion, employing a reptile's unnervingly low frequency of eye blinks coupled with a voice that Hopkins memorably described as a combination of Truman Capote and Katharine Hepburn. (Incidentally, other actors who had been considered for the role of Lecter included Sean Connery, Robert Duvall, Robert De Niro, Louis Gossett Jr, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, John Hurt, Jeremy Irons, John Lithgow, Christopher Lloyd, Jack Nicholson, and Patrick Stewart.)
It is also without question the best performance by Jodie Foster that I have ever seen (she won the role over the likes of Nicole Kidman, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Meg Ryan). The climactic scene where her rookie FBI officer Clarice Starling (a character that apparently inspired the creation of Agent Dana Scully in The X Files) is trapped with skin-stripping serial killer Jame 'Buffalo Bill' Gumb (Ted Levine) inside his house's pitch-black labyrinthine basement is almost literally heart-stopping – I caught myself physically holding my breath on more than one occasion during it. And the clever twist that reveals her to be there unsupported by any other officers is very slickly presented, big-screen legerdemain of the highest calibre. Ditto for Lecter's ingeniously macabre escape scene. Also, be sure to look out for brief cameo appearances in acting roles by acclaimed horror-movie directors David Lynch and George A. Romero, as well as by this movie's own director, Jonathan Demme.
If I had a moan after watching this movie, it was of a wholly zoological nature, inasmuch as the deathshead hawk moth Acherontia atropos (click here for my ShukerNature blog's coverage of this spectacular insect), which features so intrinsically in it and is so striking in the adult moth form, is barely seen in close-up – only the chrysalis and one very brief albeit key view of an adult moth inside BB's house. Other than that, they simply fly around with no visuals highlighting this species' characteristic deathshead-like thoracic marking, which by contrast is readily visible in most (although by no means all) publicity material.
However, following an investigation of this apparent anomaly, I discovered the likely reason for it. Namely, the moths that were actually filmed for this movie were not genuine deathshead hawk moths – instead, they were tobacco hornworm moths Manduca sexta, with the deathshead marking painted onto a body shield fixed to their thorax! Nor was that the only lepidopteran subterfuge used. For if you look very closely at the deathshead on the moth's thorax in this film's publicity material, you'll discover that it's not the genuine skull simulacrum present on this insect species' thorax but is in fact an exact reproduction in miniature of the famous surrealist picture 'In Voluptas Mors' ('Voluptuous Death') by Salvador Dali, maestro of the macabre, in which the 'skull' is actually composed of seven naked women!
Moth manipulations aside, The Silence of the Lambs is a terrific tour-de-force, and became the first horror movie ever to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. Earlier on 13 December, I'd bought on spec for 50p the 2-disc Special Edition DVD of it, with the second disc (still to watch) containing deleted scenes, interviews, and much more, so I had a great find, with both discs in mint condition too. And as a big Edward Norton fan, I've also bought the DVD of Red Dragon (2003), a prequel movie to The Silence of the Lambs, in which his character pursues and finally snares Lecter, thereby ending his killing spree and beginning his caged imprisonment where Clarice later meets him for the first time.
Finally: if you've never watched The Silence of the Lambs (or read the Thomas Harris novel on which it is based), you may be wondering what its title means in relation to the movie. As a youngster, Clarice lived on her uncle's ranch, which had sheep. One early morning she awoke to the sounds of screaming from terrified lambs in the slaughterhouse close by, so she crept inside, hoping to rescue them, but only succeeded in running away with a single lamb. However, she felt that even the saving of one might somehow contribute to the saving of all of them, thereby stopping their screaming and restoring the silence. Now, as an adult FBI officer, she is still heavily influenced by this traumatic experience, inasmuch as she is fervently hoping that if she can rescue Buffalo Bill's latest abductee, a senator's daughter, it will bring to an end his history of kidnap and murder, thereby saving other potential victims and thus restoring to these human lambs the silence of safety.
If like me you have somehow managed not to see this movie during the three decades that have passed since its release, be sure to click here to view on YouTube an official trailer for it in order to discover just what you've been missing – while watching it you could even open a nice Chianti and have an old friend for dinner!
Also, be sure to check out here at Shuker In MovieLand my thoughts regarding the second member of this terrifying trio of horror movies very belatedly watched by me – A Nightmare On Elm Street. Don't miss it!
To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.
