This is "Buffalo Bill's" story, why is he a serial killer?

Rating: Null/10 (8 October 2001)

SPOILERS - The movie's title comes from a reference to an experience Clarice (Jodie Foster) had when she was 10, living with relatives on a sheep ranch in Montana, after her policeman father was killed. She awoke to some terrible screaming and in the barn found they were slaughtering lambs. Afterward she had dreams, and Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) wonders aloud if catching the serial killer, Buffalo Bill, will "Silence the Lambs" in her dreams.
Clarice is a student assigned to try and get Lecter to help figure out who the killer is, after he kidnaps a politician's daughter. Lecter likes Clarice, ends up giving her clues which allow her to find "Bill" and in a thrilling dance of death in the dark, she shoots him. Lecter had escaped as a result of police bungling, and in the last scene we see him talking by phone to Clarice, saying he's "having an old friend for dinner", then we see him following the dastardly Dr Chilton (Anthony Heald). I haven't seen the sequel yet.
Heald is now the unpopular assistant principal in the fine TV series "Boston Public", playing essentially the same character he did in this movie. Daniel von Bargen, that fine character actor, played one of the cops looking for Lecter right after his escape.
Right now "Silence of the Lambs" has an average Imdb rating of 8.5, and is listed as the #19 film of all time. It IS a pretty good thriller, and Foster and Hopkins are at their bests in this film.