Day 8 of Halloween - Silence of the Lambs

Jason:  If you put a few movie nerds in a room and get them talking about horror films, they will inevitably get around to Silence of the Lambs. I remember watching this for the first time and being genuinely creeped out by it the whole time. It doesn’t have all the jump scares or scary monsters or lurking terror of other horror movies but it really goes to show that it is the monster you know that is the most terrifying. The reason this movie is so successful in making people afraid is because from the very beginning, it makes you identify more with the monster than with the hero. Throughout the movie, we are shown Hannibal Lecter as a gentleman who respects art and literature and decent conversation. Sure he talks about eating people and asks some pretty inappropriate personal questions, but he seems like a real person. He could be the guy next to you on the bus mentioning how much he likes your shoes. In the other direction, you are made to feel anger and disgust for the “good” characters. The FBI director and the doctor at the prison are both made out to be horrible people. Actively lying, torturing patients, just being awful in general. It really pushed the viewer to hate them and love the serial killer. It’s when you realize that you want Hannibal to win that you become truly terrified. Add onto that the gross-out factor of the Buffalo Bill plot and you’ve got yourself one of the best horror movies ever made. I mean, it is one of, if not THE only movie in the horror genre to win Best Picture.

Joel: Out of all the Oscars that they give out each year, there is a group called “The Big Five,” that are really the most well known ones. They are Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay (either adapted or original). In the entire history of the academy awards, only three movies have ever won all five of these awards and The Silence of the Lambs is one of those three. There is a very good chance that this movie will be the best one that we watch in this series. It’s almost staggering to see just how well everything is done. Anthony Hopkins of course needs to be mentioned as he is anytime someone speaks about this movie. He casts such an imposing shadow over the whole movie that it’s almost hard to believe he’s only onscreen for sixteen minutes of the actual movie. (It’s the shortest performance to ever be awarded with a Best Lead Actor Oscar.) The story is well crafted and keeps you invested the entire time. The fact that I has seen this movie a few times before did nothing to slow my heartbeat during one particular scene (you know which one.) Watch it if you haven't yet. There’s a reason it gets brought up so much when talking about the horror genre. It’s one of the pinnacles of the genre as a whole.

Chris: How in the world I made it through 4 ½ years of college in a media studies program without ever once watching Silence of the Lambs until now is beyond me. And I realized that the longer I went, the weirder it was that I hadn’t seen it but I’m very glad I did. Like Joel pointed out, Anthony Hopkins was on-screen for 16 minutes of a 2 hour movie and won the Best Actor Oscar, proving that great acting is great acting regardless of the amount of screen time. It’s a disturbing film to sit through, which is why I understand that it be including in this list, but not disturbing to the point where watching the movie was a chore. Typically a movie like this would force me to have the reaction of “it’s a good movie that enjoyed once and feel no need to ever watch again.” However, Hopkins’ performance alone is enough for me to not mind watching this movie again some day. Jason is on a roll. 3-4-1 Jason might make the playoffs.