8 Horror Movies Where The Villain Is Really The Hero
3. The Silence Of The Lambs - Hannibal Lecter
Sometimes, there has to be a bit of give and take in the horror game.
In The Silence of the Lambs, Sir Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal Lecter ends up helping the FBI to bring down the creepy, skin-peeling killer known as Buffalo Bill. The caveat here, though, is that the genius smarts of Lecter come at a price - and that price is often drenched in cannibalism.
Without the assistance of Dr. Lecter, Clarice Starling would not have been able to bring Buffalo Bill down. There's just that small elephant in the room when it comes to Lecter's own dark habits.
Throughout The Silence of the Lambs, we're left with a constant feeling that Lecter could actually escape his imprisoned confinement at the drop of a hat. Instead, he waits until he's given Clarice all of the pointers she needs to find Buffalo Bill before Lecter opts to make his grand, glorious, gory break for freedom.
Even after breaking out of the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, Lecter still finds time to check in on Clarice during the movie's final moments - with Hannibal Lecter serving as a flesh-eating mentor figure of sorts to Starling.
Giving the Hannibal Lecter character a further shot of heroism, 2007's Hannibal Rising showed how the young Hannibal was a skewed hero looking to avenge the death of his young sister.