10 Psychological Thrillers That Genuinely Mess With Your Head

The Silence of the Lambs was famously only the third film to win Academy Awards in all the top five categories: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay (and the only horror to achieve such a feat) when it was first released in 1991. The film introduced the dark world of Dr. Hannibal Lecter, arguably one of the greatest villains in history and it was clear there was always going to be a sequel on the cards with so much universal acclaim from fans and critics alike.

The sequel, which sadly does contain a noticeable lack of Jodie Foster as Agent Clarice Starling, places Hannibal front and centre of the big screen and allows the audience to see most of the sick complexities of his life through his very own eyes. Hopkins is, once again, absolutely spellbinding in his performance and completely sells the charm of Hannibal's extravagant and sadistic personalities.

Throw in the addition of the notoriously twisted Mason Verger, Hannibal's one surviving victim, and Hannibal serves as one of the most grey and morally complex films out there. The film famously subbed out a lot of the crime from The Silence of the Lambs for a far more bloody gore-fest, but that only helps the gruesome fates of the likes of Verger all the more harder for audiences to process.