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| Fashionista Hannibal Lecter won't stop insulting Clarice's shoes. |
The Live UP podcast proudly introduces our "After Dark" series in which we review the movies we shouldn't have been watching as kids... (but did watch thanks to the lax 1980s and 1990s parenting). We're kicking off this series with 1991's Academy Award winning Silence of the Lambs. This movie is nearly perfect... but we should NOT have watched it as kids.
Jess and I were both around 11-12 years old when, out of the sight of parents, we first slipped the Blockbuster cassette of Silence of the Lambs into a VHS player. From the opening shot of Clarice running through the bleak winter woods, I remember feeling on edge. Something scary was going to happen. The scene when Clarice interviews Hannibal was creepy, but kinda interesting. I didn't understand anything that Miggs was doing or saying in the next cell. I understood that Hannibal killed Miggs just by whispering to him, but they didn't actually show that so it wasn't bad. Still... something scary was coming.
The first moment that terrified my kid brain was when Clarice crawls under the garage door into the dark storage unit. It's pitch black in there... nope. It's cluttered with creepy mannequins and stuff... nope. Given the structural soundness of that garage door, she's definitely going to get trapped in there... Nope! How could this be any scarier? Oh wait! She just found a human head preserved in a jar... nope, Nope, NOPE!
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| When Hannibal Lecter tells you to search yourself... Nope. |
Kid me didn't turn the movie off though. I persevered on through the bloody basement pit, Hannibal's escape, the Goodbye Horses dance, and the final chase through the dark moth-filled labyrinth. Some scenes felt more visceral than others. That final credit sequence -Hannibal slowly pursuing Dr. Chilton down the street- somehow left me feeling like justice had been restored, even though it implies Hannibal's about to violently murder and eat his nemesis. Kid me thought this was a really good, really terrifying movie. It taught me to never ever help a stranger move a couch into a van.
Jess and I discuss in the podcast that despite the horrific violence in the script, Silence of the Lambs doesn't actually show any of it. They always cut away. That can be more terrifying because the viewer's brain needs to provide the graphic violence.
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| Sometimes that other guy's face you're wearing needs a touch up. |
Ironically, the lack of onscreen violence makes this movie not-so-scary for younger kids who aren't filling in the gaps with their imaginations. My youngest sister watched The Silence of the Lambs with us at age 4 (another great moment in 1990s parenting) without getting scared -- she had no idea what was going on. She was just happy to sit with the older kids and eat popcorn.
Long story short, this movie is fantastic... but is not for kids.
Listen to what else we discovered when we rewatched The Silence of the Lambs as adults here, or on your favorite podcast streaming platforms.
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