10 Worst Reveals In Movie Prequels
4. The Anti-Hero Cannibal - Hannibal Rising
While Hannibal Lecter has so often been depicted as a multi-layered character who is far from your average horror movie villain, 2007's Hannibal Rising prequel went one further and turned the cannibalistic Dr. Lecter-in-waiting into a more heroic figure.
At worst, Hannibal here is an anti-hero, at best he's a full-on knight in shining armour.
Once it became apparent that Hannibal Rising was to focus on the younger years of Lecter, many feared that we may get to see a little more to Hannibal's backstory than we necessarily needed. But the most disappointing reveal of the film was how Hannibal embarked on a mission of honour and revenge after his sister was killed and eaten by a Nazi-led group of Lithuanian soldiers.
Sure, this served to give motivation to Hannibal Rising's central plot, but it also felt like a cheap and easy trick that took far too much of the lustre out of a character that has so often been one of the most fascinating in the horror genre.
We know Lecter has smarts, we know Lecter isn't shy about killing, and we know Lecter has a taste for human flesh - but Hannibal Rising's decision to have Hannibal chew his way through a revenge mission left a bad taste in the mouth. Nearly as bad a taste as Hannibal Lecter having had to eat a casserole made out of his sister's remains.