The Silence of the Lambs Reviews
Radio Times
This multi-Oscar-winning classic, adapted from Thomas Harris's bestseller, was responsible for giving cinematic serial killers a better image, thanks to Anthony Hopkins's enthralling portrayal of Hannibal Lecter.
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/5
Guardian [UK]
n exceptionally good film, perhaps this fine director's best, in which the horror genre is elevated into the kind of cinema that can at least be argued about as a treatise for its unsettling times.
Top CriticHopkins' performance may be the film's bravura showpiece, but Foster's goes the whole distance, steadfast, controlled, heartbreakingly insightful, a fine addition to her gallery of characterizations.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4.5/5
Total Film
Jonathan Demme's astute adaptation of Thomas Harris' last good book entwines the horror and detective genres to enduringly shocking effect.
ColeSmithey.com
[VIDEO ESSAY] "Hannibal the Cannibal" is the ultimate anti-hero.
Full Review
| Original Score: A+
Common Sense Media
Thriller that made the serial killer a superstar.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Georgia Straight
The odd psychological interplay between the gutsy, but green, Starling and the deranged, yet fascinating, Lecter provides the basic tone for Jonathan Demme's well-made, insidious shocker.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Dark Horizons
Not a second of this two-hour flick, which redefined the term 'thriller' and spawned a host of clones, I can find error with.
Apollo Guide
Screenwriters and directors can turn to this classic film for a primer on how to create incredible tension and horror far in excess of what we actually see onscreen.
Full Review
| Original Score: 89/100
Q Network Film Desk
All of its most enduring aesthetic qualities and themes%u2014essentially what sets it apart from so many imitators and established it almost immediately as a canonical film%u2014are contained in its riveting first 20 minutes, which draw you in like a stee
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/4
Screen It!
It has maintained its reputation as a chilling drama after all these years...
Full Review
| Original Score: 10/10
This is the grandest guignol Hollywood has produced in years.
eFilmCritic.com
Demme has the control of a born master of suspense.
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/5
The juiciest part is Hopkins,' and he makes the most of it. Helped by some highly dramatic lighting, actor makes the role the personification of brilliant, hypnotic evil, and the screen jolts with electricity whenever he is on.
Film4
This is a still wonderful example of classy storytelling and unforgettable characterisation.
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/5
FulvueDrive-in.com
A riveting, non-stop thriller of nerve-racking intensity.
| Original Score: 9/10
Ozus' World Movie Reviews
The over-the-top story reeks of phoniness, grisly violence and exploitation.
Full Review
| Original Score: B-
FEARnet
Not since The Exorcist had a horror flick been this applauded! It was almost as if ... "horror" were its own legitimate genre!
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/5
EmanuelLevy.Com
If you disregard the homophobic elements, you'll enjoy Demme's terrific thriller with brilliant acting from Hopkins, who makes a likable hero out of Hannibal, and Jodie Foster, as the agent who becomes his reluctant partner and romantic interest
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
