Already legendary, and deservedly so...

Rating: 10/10 (8 February 2004)

You realize you're in a different sort of thriller when Clarice Starling walks down that corridor, trying to ignore the cat-calls of a cell-block full of lunatics, only to find that the most dangerous inmate on the block is standing calmly in his cell, waiting for her, almost as if he's welcoming her to a cocktail party. Rare is the movie that gets everything right, but "The Silence of the Lambs" comes awfully close to providing the perfect example for a modern thriller. It's so disturbing to watch for some people that it's often described as a horror movie, which says more about other films involving serial killing, in my opinion, than it does about this one. We're not used to crime thrillers that actually show killing and its aftermath in gruesome, clinical detail-- "The Silence of the Lambs" does. We're not used to films showing us psychopaths of unnerving ferocity-- "The Silence of the Lambs" does. Most importantly, we're not used to seeing this kind of story presented in such a matter-of-fact way-- "The Silence of Lambs" is never showy in its camera work or its performances. Most crime thrillers don't quite thrill, and certainly don't frighten, because you never quite believe them. You believe "The Silence of the Lambs", especially when you wish you didn't.