10 Horror Movie Deaths That Get Worse The More You Think About It

The second adaptation of Thomas Harris' horror book series - after the failed Brian Cox-starring Manhunter (1986) - The Silence of the Lambs puts its best foot forward with the now-definitive Hannibal Lecter: Anthony Hopkins.

Junior FBI agent Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) interviews Lecter, an imprisoned intellectual, cannibal, and psychopath, in the hopes of uncovering insights into a new case she is working on. But everyone involved gets more than they bargained for as Lecter proves to be not only charismatic and charming, but slippery, disastrously clever, and capable of engineering his own escape from long-term incarceration.

While Lecter is the undeniable star of the movie, his presence looming large over every act, he doesn't get to do an awful lot. But what he lacks in quantity he makes up for in quality. Lecter's first kill of the film is fellow prisoner Miggs (Stuart Rudin), whom he influences into committing suicide by swallowing his own tongue. The precise cause of death is never revealed, but we have to assume he suffocated or choked on his oral organ, and spent a significant amount of time in fear and anguish. 

What is worse still, however, is trying to fathom what Lecter might have said to him. How could a conversation make him do something so severe? What psychological horrors did Lecter inflict with words alone? Thankfully, we will never know.