20 Horror Movie Endings That Are Practically Perfect
16. The Silence Of The Lambs - One Last Chat
The Silence of the Lambs is so damn iconic, and its ending is just as quotable and legendary as the rest of it.
Following Clarice Starling's (Jodie Foster) terrifying near-death battle with a deranged serial killer, we jump to Starling graduating from the FBI Academy, now fully qualified and having overcome the childhood trauma stemming from her father's death. Starling is congratulated by her boss, Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn), who tells her how proud her father would be, concluding this wonderful character arc in the best way.
Starling is informed she has a call waiting and goes to answer: "Well, Clarisse? Have the lambs stopped screaming?" rings out the unmistakable voice of Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), now hiding out on a tropical island.
Lecter congratulates her and reassures her that he won't come after her as the world is more interesting with her in it, a final reminder of their strange, complicated bond. Then, Lecter drops one of the best closing lines in film history: "I do wish we could chat for longer but... I'm having an old friend for dinner. Bye."
That old friend turns out to be Dr. Chilton (Anthony Heald), the insufferable director of the institution where Lecter was locked up; it's likely that some audience members discreetly celebrated when this next victim was revealed. The movie ends as Lecter follows Chilton into the crowd, beautifully paying off Starling's journey but leaving things on a tantalizing cliff-hanger for arguably the best horror villain of all time.