Review of The Silence of the Lambs (1991) by Stefarooh — 16 Sep 2021

Absolute cracker of a film. 30 years later and people still talk about this movie. It has never left popular culture still heavily influencing films today and is instantly recognizable from its many references to famous movie quotes. Apart from the really impressive performances by the entire cast (who literally all bring their A-Game), The Silence of the Lambs greatest strength is that it doesn't wallow in depravity, given the nature of the book and the screenplay, wisely choosing to keep a lot of the grisly violence off the screen which makes it even more terrifying. The film is a character study into the minds of two psychopaths and the young rookie cadet trying to match wits with them.

The dialog is snappy and sharp and the first part of the film is very procedural and slow moving (although no less absorbing) but once the second half kicks in, with a fantastic bait and switch twist it becomes a rollercoaster ride of pure unnerving tension as the young cadet finds herself alone in a mad man's dungeon trying to save his next victim.

I saw the film in theaters and vividly remember people hiding underneath their chairs the films tension was so unbearable in its climax. Of course we have been desensitized in the intervening years since this film released so some may look upon the film today and not understand why it frightened so many people upon release but you have to remember no film from this genre had played cat and mouse with its audience the way this film did back upon release, so it caught everybody off guard.

Absolutely brilliant stuff, highly deserving to be in a class of only three films to ever win all five major Academy Awards and easily in my top 5 films of all time.