Why was Hannibal Lecter so scary in The Silence of the Lambs?

Because unlike many movie villains, he could realistically exist. And you like him and he then violates the trust you've given him. read more

People are also more used to seeing procedural crime dramas with gory images. You could make the argument that The Silence of the Lambs kicked off a certain amount of interest in that.” The Silence of the Lambs spawned hundreds of imitators (including its own TV spin-off, Hannibal). read more

In the ensuing years, we've seen so many ludicrous spoofs of Hopkins as Lecter, that his portrayal of Hannibal the Cannibal has lost a lot of its luster. Like a lot of things in pop culture, people remember the imitators, not the originators, and judge the latter by the quality of the former, an unfortunate mistake. read more