silence of the lambs | hear the bleat

What is it that is so creepy about The Silence of the Lambs? Of course, the story or rather, multiple stories within are pretty creepy. There is our friend Hannibal the Cannibal, the famous and brilliant psychiatrist who had a penchant for eating people he didn't quite like, but had a taste for nonetheless. But Hannibal doesn't frighten us that much. Or at least, he doesn't frighten me. I wouldn't want to be on his bad side, but I'm not a rude person and I think we'd likely agree on who should be eaten and who not. They may not taste good, but ridding the world of people who leave a bad taste in your mouth in any way is not such a bad mission. The world would be a better place with fewer rude people. No, the real creep and monster of the film is Buffalo Bill. The man on the fringe in every sense, for not only is he a serial killer, he's some kind of transsexual who is just a bit too carried away. Rejected by every respectable clinic that refuses to surgically make him a woman, Bill decides to make himself a woman out of other women, skinning the bits he needs to make a kind of woman suit that he can wear to real sub-culture parties on weird summer cruises off the cape or god knows where, all decked out in his dead-girl suit. Talk about disturbing. This part is in the book, though not mentioned directly in the film. For the real skinny on Buffalo Bill, one must read the book by Thomas Harris - a quick read at that and a good one. >>>more.