The Silence of the Lambs is an inherently creepy film; everything from its eerie title to its deranged bad guy, Buffalo Bill, is enough to make your skin crawl whenever you think about it. It's also a modern masterpiece - a furiously intelligent and gripping crime flick slash serial killer movie rendered brilliant through its bizarre central relationship: that's to say, the teaming of Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) and Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins). Despite their standing on the opposite sides of the law, Starling and Lecter respect one another, and yet - in order to get what they want - the pair must outwit the other. The Silence of The Lambs, directed by Jonathan Demme, is often branded as a psychological thriller, and though it contains all the elements of said sub-genre, at heart it remains a deeply unsettling crime film with touches of horror. It's easy to see why it swept the Oscars in '92.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
