The Silence of the Lambs, 1991

Director: Jonathan Demme

Silence of the lambs was a newer classical horror film. It played mind tricks with the viewer, with Anthony Hopkins playing as "Hannibal Lecter". I wanted to watch this film and analyse it as it showed Hannibal Lecter with severe mental problems, and being in an asylum kind of prison. The storyline was brilliant, and his escape from the hospital/prison was thrilling and put a threat on people, which is something that our film trailer and plot would show, with the boy escaping from his cell, becoming a threat.

Jodie Foster, playing Clarice Starling, was also portrayed as a hero, whilst being a controlled and steadfast female, which goes against the stereotypical controlled and heroistic male, attracting a wider audience.

I found the mis-en-scene of the film was intriguing, with Hannibal Lecter wearing an orange jump suit, which gave us a slight incline on an idea of what we could use for our film. He also wore a bite mask which hid his facial identity and expression, making him even more mysterious.

The sounds were eerie also, giving that horror/psychological thriller kind of feeling. The way Hannibal Lecter would murder his victims was also sinister and ominous. 

The film was frightening all the way through, and the code of enigma throughout the film was:

Why is he doing this?

What is wrong with him?

Will he be stopped?

This film was a smart and taut thriller, whilst still creepy and disheartening. I felt this psychological thriller was an intense film, which could be considered as lacking in the psychological thriller genre films nowadays.

Scene That Was Most Significant

This scene stood out the most for me as even though he is behind a cell, he is still creating a fear throughout his speech. He even speaks more than the female detective, showing he is in control. And even though she is the hero within this film, in this clip she is shown to be scared and feared of Hannibal Lecter, as she shows to be fully concentrated on his words and actions, jumping and shifting almost everytime he moved, showing she was being cautious of him. This then would create the viewer to feel that way also, as the viewer would tend to feel the same emotions as the heroistic character. When he tells the detective that he once "ate his liver with some fava beans", this creates the character as a sick and twisted individual who has no limits, representing almost the genre itself.