The Silence Of The Lambs [VHS] [1991]

Based on Thomas Harris's novel, Jonathan Demme's terrifying adaptation of Silence of the Lambs contains only a couple of genuinely shocking moments (one involving an autopsy, the other a prison break). The rest of the film is a splatter-free visual and psychological descent into the hell of madness, redeemed astonishingly by an unlikely connection between a monster and a haunted young woman. Anthony Hopkins is extraordinary as the cannibalistic psychiatrist Dr Hannibal Lecter, virtually entombed in a subterranean prison for the criminally insane. At the behest of the FBI, agent-in-training Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) approaches Lecter, requesting his insights into the identity and methods of a serial killer named Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine). In exchange, Lecter demands the right to penetrate Starling's most painful memories, creating a bizarre but palpable intimacy that liberates them both under separate but equally horrific circumstances. Demme, a filmmaker with a uniquely populist vision (Melvin and Howard, Something Wild), also spent his early years making pulp for Roger Corman (Caged Heat) and he hasn't forgotten the significance of tone, atmosphere and the unsettling nature of a crudely effective close-up. Much of the film, in fact, consists of actors staring straight into the camera (usually from Clarice's point of view), making every bridge between one set of eyes to another seem terribly dangerous. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com

Special Features:

Theatrical Teaser Trailer
Original Theatrical Trailer
TV Spots
Original Featurette
Hannibal Trailer

Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Fopster deliver knockout Oscar-winning performaces in this shocking, powerful thriller. This terrifying masterpiece of suspense garnered five Academy Awards including Best Director and coveted Best Picture.

A psychopath known only as Buffalo Bill is kidnapping and murdering young women across the midwest. Believing it takes one to know one, the FBI sends Agent Clarice Starling (Foster) to interview an insane prisoner who may provide psychological insights and clues to the killer's actions. The prisoner is psychiatrist Dr.Hannibal Lecter (Hopkins). Brilliant yet psychotic, with a taste for cannibalism, Lecter will only help Starling in exchange for details and secrets about her own complicated life. This twisted relationship forces Starling not only to face her own inner demons, but leads her face-to-face with a demented killer, an incarnation of evil so overwhelming, she may not have the courage or strength to stop him. Horrific, disturbing, spellbinding. This thriller set the standard by which all others are measured.