Chilling masterpiece

Rating: 9/10 (1 August 2018)

One of my favourite films of all time - which makes me a little bit strange in my family's eyes! The film tells the story of you young FBI Cadet/Trainee Clarice Starling's (Jody Foster) first big case. She's thrown into the wolves den and asked to interview an infamous cannibalistic serial killer, Dr Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter (Anthony Hopkins). Little does she know that she was chosen for ulterior motives, nether the less, she manages to extract information by forming a close bond with Dr Lecter - something nobody previously has been able to do. The information she is trying to get should lead to the capture of another serial killer, Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine) who has previously cross paths with Dr Lecter. Currently terrorising the eastern states of the US, he's killed five victims and kidnapping the senator's daughter. Lots of psychological warfare is and will be used in order to get the required information and track down the killer before it's too late for the senators daughter.
Based on a Thomas Harris book of the same name this is actually one of those rare things, a film which doesn't ruin the feeling left by the book. Directed by Jonathan Demme the film is dark and tense, and acts as a benchmark for thrillers and horrors - proving you don't have to go overboard on gore or graphic visuals to make something haunting and memorable.
The casting is brilliant and believable but its Hopkins and Foster who really drive this film from start to finish. Hopkins in particular delivers a performance which is classy but scary at the same time and will forever live in cult memory. From the minute you first glimpse Lecter in his cell, watching the wide eyed Starling approach you sense that something isn't right with him - massive credit to Hopkins for this delivery, it's haunting and disturbed, a kin to a caged predator watching curiously to see what has just entered his cage and what he can do with it for fun. Ask somebody to quote a line from the film and 9 times out of 10 it's be a quote about fava beans and Chianti. The visuals are dark and dirty, Demme chose washed out, almost sepia, colours throughout the film and it really adds a lot of texture to the experience. It almost feels like you've got dirty by watching the dirtiness of what's happening in front of you.
I loved this film and would happily watch it any time I happen to catch it repeated. This is rare example of film which tests my ability to rate it - I refuse to give out 10's but that self-imposed rule could have been broken for this masterpiece so easily. 9 out of 10.