"I do wish we could chat longer, but... I'm having an old friend for dinner. Bye." The ending of Silence Of The Lambs feels like a sucker punch straight to the gut. We know that Hannibal Lecter is, of course, a very dangerous man. But in this film at least we fancied him more or less under control. The remarkable thing about Silence Of The Lambs is that however much of a monster he may be, he isn't technically speaking the villain. That would be Buffalo Bill, the serial killer that the FBI is consulting with Hannibal about in the first place. So when we know that he's escaped, and that he is going to be just as vicious and lethal as he was before he went to prison, that's a little bit scary. He takes the initiative to contact Clarice and warn her not to try to find him, and to top it all off, we learn of his specific plans involving Dr. Chilton. Presumably, he means to eat him. Not exactly the cheeriest way to end a film, but there was never much hope of that.
Audrey Fox is an ex-film student, which means that she prefers to spend her days in the dark, watching movies and pondering the director's use of diegetic sound. She currently works as an entertainment writer, joyfully rambling about all things film and television related. Add her on Twitter at @audonamission and check out her film blog at 1001moviesandbeyond.com.
