15 Best Movie Thrillers From The 1980s

Few can have enjoyed Anthony Hopkins’ Oscar winning turn as Hannibal Lector less than Brian Cox. The performance was a hammy masterpiece, well worthy of its praise, but it has led to Cox’s subtler, more sinister work in Manhunter to fade into history, which is a crying shame.

Cox’s Lector (here “Lecktor” for some reason) plays a similar role to that of his later depictions, guiding an FBI agent to catch a killer on the loose. Here, though, Lecktor feels a much more plausible threat, a far colder presence than Hopkins’ dangerous but jocular cannibal. Director Michael Mann, like Jonathan Demme after him, understood that Lecktor was best used sparingly - he turns up, he’s scene stealingly creepy, he’s gone.

The film on the whole is great, too, with William Petersen a fine lead as Will Crawford and Tom Noonan a physically imposing presence as The Tooth Fairy. Michael Mann is an arch stylist; as well as his keen eye for pacing, the film looks brilliant, bathed in his trademark blue wash.

It lacks the iconic character moments of Silence Of The Lambs, but as a straightforward thriller this is perhaps the more exciting and visceral of the two .