I am not a fan of horror movies. Correction, I hate blood, and therefore usually hate all horror movies, at least contemporary ones. So when this movie was slowly approaching the top of my list, I began to get nervous. Once it finally arrived, it took me 3 weeks to actually watch it. Although I was encouraged to enjoy the movie by myself with the lights out in my apartment, I chose to have Jake watch it with me with a few lights on, you know, just in case.
So I had a huge blanket, pillow and a strong man by my side, and I was ready to watch.
If you aren't familiar with the film, it basically follows Clarice (Jodi Foster) a FBI student who is asked to interview former psychiatrist and cannibal Hannibal Lecter in order to gain information about a serial killer Buffalo Bill. Clarice seems to be the only person who has been able to get Lecter to open up, and it could be the key to stopping Bill before he kills again.
I loved it. It was everything that I love in a horror movie, and has what I feel present day horror movies have lost, which is suspense and thrill. Now, I feel like horror movies over do the gore to make it "scarier", when in actuality not seeing what happens lets my imagination run wild.
I will say that I did hide under my blanket at one scene and made Jake tell me when it had passed, and that was (SPOILER) when Hannibal escapes from his cell. I just kept thinking he was going to eat those security guards alive, and I didn't want to see that happen. What actually happened was far less gruesome, but I think I have been conditioned to think the worst of scary movies.
All in all, it was a really great movie, really well written and definitely a classic.
Did you know?
- Buffalo Bill is the combination of three real life serial killers: Ed Gein, who skinned his victims; Ted Bundy, who used the cast on his hand as bait to make women get into his van; and Gary Heidnick, who kept women he kidnapped in a pit in his basement. Gein was only positively linked to two murders and suspected of two others. He gathered most of his materials not through murder, but grave-robbing. In the popular imagination, however, he remains a serial killer with uncounted victims.
- Almost all the scenes in Hannibal's original cell have either a reflection of Hannibal or Clarice, depending on the camera's point of view.
- The first moth cocoon found in one of the victim's throats was made from a combination of "Tootsie-Rolls" and gummy bears, so that if she swallowed it, it would be edible.
When to See It: Feeling like being spooked? Watch during a thunderstorm in the dark alone. Don't feel like being scared out of your mind? Keep the lights on and bring a buddy!
Run Time: ~1hr 50 min