Are The Lambs Still Crying?

Rating: 9/10 (17 May 2012)

This is one of those films that sticks with you. The psychological horror of Anthony Hopkin's Hannibal Lecter is like a thick fog that remains in your head, sticking to the corners of your subconscious in a way too few villains have ever managed. It's one of those career-defining roles that, having seen someone so naturally take it on, you cannot imagine anyone else stepping into. Having read Thomas Harris' fantastic novel beforehand, this was one of the biggest selling points to me. As anyone who has read the book(s) can tell you, Hannibal Lecter is an extremely deep and complicated character that demanded an actor capable of both sophisticated mannerisms and a terrible underlying nature of pure evil. The moment Jodie Foster's Clarice Starling meets Hopkins' Lecter, you can see it all in the intense gleam of his eyes.
As a best picture winner, this film was righteously recognized for it's strong merits of precise storytelling, incredible lead acting from Hopkins and Foster and a strong supporting cast, and most of all for truly engaging the viewer in it's atmosphere of horror. The little touches round out the fantastic experience, from Lecter's disturbing facial appliance to Clarice's slow unveiling of her troubled past and Lecter's bizarre way of showing his empathy and affection, all the way to Ted Levine's superb portray of the psychologically disturbed Buffalo Bill.
A movie that still gets under your skin all these years later, it's a crime if you haven't seen it. A brilliant film from beginning to end is rare enough, but when it also features a character who was destined to be one of horror's iconic faces, it becomes a legend in the making.