Silence of the Lambs

(1991) ****

Finally conquered my fear of watching this horror classic, mainly because it was the only horror movie in the house, and I was too excited about waiting to start Horrorthon.

So to sum it up as briefly as possible(for I'm sure you've all seen this beaut): theres a murderer on the loose killing and peeling skins off of fat women. Jodie Foster plays an FBI in training in charge of prying some answers, about this "Buffalo Bill" murderer, out of cannibal psychopath Hannibal Lector (Anthony Hopkins). He plays a lot of psychological games with her, asking her about her past especially (surprisingly involving...¡lambs!), while the FBI and Lector's doctor stumble over themselves trying to get the answers. Hannibal at one point cunningly escapes his prison in a very very loooong scene with very, very stupid cops. In the end Foster accidentally finds Bill and after many, many, basement rooms and a strangely edited slow motion reaction she finally shoots him in the chest and kills him. She gets promoted to Super Special FBI lady, and then gets a phone call from Hannibal who is in the Bermudas (or so we conclude from the end credits) who says he is going to have an old friend for dinner. Oh silly Hannibal! You and your bloody puns!

So I'm stuck, sick in bed, at my parents house, first day of first ever Horrorthon. Now parents aren't exactly horror movie buffs, their tastes range from a trusty Seagal movie to Inspector Morse. But amongst the dusty VHS tapes I did manage to find this timeless classic. First thing I did, was call up the boyfriend and ask him whether there were any really really scary bits in it, as he has seen every movie ever. And he assured me it was mostly a psychological horror. Which is my piece of cake. Or bowl of fava beans sorry ...

'Thtththththhth!"

(Yes, yes, you saw it coming, but it is such a fun line! I couldn't help myself).

All in all I enjoyed the movie, but my only real complaint was that I was hoping for more Starling/Lector interaction to find out what makes a cannibal psychologist psychopath tick (thats a mouthful)...maybe we find that out in Hannibal?

Jodie Foster did her best to be the FBI in training, I liked her stoic yet vulnerable personality. Anthony Hopkins was good, but there were times when I couldn't take him seriously. He was doing his evil smile but it seemed like he was seconds away from giggling. Foster's boss reminded me more of some German SS general with his gelled back hair and little round glasses, he scared me more than Lector. Was that intentional on the directors part? And when she gets the phone call from Lector at the end, and she sees her boss walking away, it feels suspiciously like theres supposed to be a correlation. I guess I'm looking too much into things. Buffalo Bill too was quite the character, but I think they overdid it a little with the swastika blanket.

The overlapping scenes at the end of the movie, where the FBI is ringing the bell at the "real" suspects house and Buffalo Bill panics at the sound of the bell was beautifully done. I was fooled. But then I am naive. Also at the end, the whole scene with the night vision goggles was amazingly written, the push and pull between the murderer's fascination with women and his desire to kill in order to be one.

The only thing I don't recommend doing while watching this movie is eating pizza with ham and pineapple toppings. Didn't digest well...s'all I can say.

Bonus observation: Ending credits, one of the characters was termed the "Friendly Psychopath" . A little bit of an oxymoron?