10 Terrifying Horror Movie Phone Calls You'll Never Forget

3. The Silence Of The Lambs

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Orion Pictures

Hannibal Lecter is far from your regular mindless killing machine. Whereas Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees stalk and slice their way through a roster of disposable teens, Leatherface erratically screams into the night's sky, and Freddy Krueger quips his way through all manner of carnage, Hannibal is a different prospect entirely.

The thinking man's killer, Lecter is a multi-faceted murderer operating on a supreme level of intellect. Still, this doesn't stop him from being a terrifying proposition - and if anything, the smarts and methodology of Hannibal only serves to enhance the fear he conjures up.

Where the phone call comes into play here is in The Silence of the Lamb's closing moments.

It's here that Jodie Foster's Clarice Starling receives an ominous call from Sir Anthony Hopkins' Lecter. In typical Hannibal style, the call is eerily warm and social, yet with an underbelly of devious intentions as Hannibal Lecter informs Clarice that he's "having an old friend for dinner."

Far from the outrageous threats or the supernatural chicanery seen elsewhere in this list, it's the calm and composed delivery of Hannibal Lecter that truly makes this call one of the most jarring and ultimately iconic in movie history, period.

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Senior Writer
Senior Writer

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