20 90s Movie Scenes That Traumatized Us All

12. The Silence Of The Lambs - Buffalo Bill's Dance

The Silence of the Lambs might rank among the 1990s' most beloved movies, but that's not to say that it didn't traumatize a lot of people. It's a brutal movie, and it's still inexplicable that it recently got downgraded from an 18 to a 15 by the BBFC. 

There are an awful lot of scenes in this classic that'll mess you up every time you watch, especially the ones involving the serial killer Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine). Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal Lecter is frightening, sure, but he's weirdly likable at the same time, while Buffalo Bill is a harrowing-to-watch nightmare of a character who'll make your skin crawl. There are many grim moments involving Bill - such as him sadistically mocking an unfortunate woman he's holding captive in his basement - but perhaps the most purely unsettling one is him doing one of cinema's nastiest dances. 

Here, Bill dances in the nude (with his genitals tucked between his legs) to Lazarus Q's Goodbye Horses while wearing the flayed scalp of one of his victims. Here, we see the full depth of his depravity, and this was so disturbing that you'll never be able to hear Goodbye Horses without experiencing some discomfort. It's also a reminder of just how magisterial Ted Levine's performance was, and the fact that he didn't get an Oscar nomination will never not be maddening.