Luscious and Non-Licentious Ranking of the Lecterverse Films

Welcome back everyone! It has been a little while since we delved into the horror film genre, but today’s list features one of my favorite horror film franchises. That of course is, for lack of a better name, the Hannibal Lecter series.

That name is a bit of a misnomer given that Lecter is not the main character in several of the books and films. However, Lecter is the one character that is present in all of the books and all of the film adaptations. He is the thread that runs through them and binds the books together. Overall, the Hannibal Lecter series is one of the most consistently high quality horror franchises there is. Now obviously not all of the films are masterpieces, but my point is that the highs are truly as high as you can get, and the lows are not actually that low. A large part of this is because the films are grounded in a realistic world and because none of the films feature original screenplays. There are five films featuring the Hannibal Lecter character, and all of those films are based on the four book series written Thomas Harris from the 1980s through the 2000s. If you noticed the math there does not quite work out, it is because the first book received two film adaptations.

Today’s list is a ranking of the Lecterverse films, the five films to feature the Hannibal Lecter character. Horror is one of my favorite film genres, so this is a topic that we will return to in the future. I hope you all enjoy this list, and check out this series of films especially if you have not seen them.

1. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

MPAA Rating: R

Hannibal Lecter quote: “I would not have had that happen to you. Discourtesy is unspeakably ugly to me.”

This film taking the top spot should surprise no one. The Silence of the Lambs is widely regarded as one of the greatest horror/thriller films of all time. And this is not simply a reputation that it has earned over time, though it definitely holds up now thirty years later. This film was critically lauded at the time and dominated at the Academy Awards, winning for all five of the major categories. It is actually one of only three films in history to win all of the ‘big five’ Academy Awards. These of course included Best Picture, Best Director (Jonathan Demme), Best Actress (Jodie Foster), Best Actor (Anthony Hopkins), and Best Adapted Screenplay. The film is of course adapted from the book of the same name from 1988, which was the second of author Thomas Harris’ books to feature the character. Again, there is no end to the praises that could be made about this film. It truly is one of the best of all time. I would be remiss if I did not throw in here that the active serial killer in this story, Buffalo Bill (played wonderfully by Ted Levine), was inspired by real life serial killer Ed Gein. Notably, this film marks the first portrayal of the Hannibal Lecter character by Anthony Hopkins. While his performance is almost synonymous with the character, he was actually not the first actor the play the character, which we will see next.

2. Manhunter (1986)

MPAA Rating: R

Hannibal Lecter quote: “Have you ever seen blood in the moonlight, Will?”

Manhunter is actually a truly great film that often gets overlooked for three reasons. The first is that it features Brian Cox in the role of Hannibal Lecter, rather than Anthony Hopkins. Now obviously this film came out years before Silence of the Lambs, making Cox actually the first person to portray Lecter on screen. Because Hopkins is so identified with the character in popular culture consciousness (and for good reason), I am sure there is less of an appeal for the casual viewer to see a Lecter film without Hopkins. While Cox is decent in the role, he is nowhere near as memorable or iconic as Hopkins. The second is that this film came out in 1986 and is very much of its time visually. It has almost a Miami Vice visual style to it. Since the subsequent films after Silence of the Lambs essentially just copy the visual style of that one, it leaves Manhunter as the odd one out. The third reason is that this film is not officially within the same continuity as the subsequent Lecter films. So thus, while I called this list the Lecterverse, it would likely be more appropriate to call it the Lecter multiverse.

Manhunter is an adaptation of the Thomas Harris novel, Red Dragon, from 1981. That was the first book to feature the Lecter character. Another film adaptation of Red Dragon would be released in 2002 as a prequel to Silence of the Lambs, and featuring Hopkins as Lecter. We will get to that one shortly. However, I maintain that Manhunter is actually the superior film in almost every way. And that opinion seems to be rather commonly held by film critics and fans. Manhunter comes highly recommended from me, even for casual fans of horror and police thrillers.

3. Red Dragon (2002)

MPAA Rating: R

Hannibal Lecter quote: “You will not persuade me with appeals to my intellectual vanity.”

As mentioned above, Red Dragon was the second film adaptation of Harris’ first Lecter novel of the same name from 1981. While I hold that Manhunter is the superior film, Red Dragon is still a quality film in its own right. It certainly features a higher profile cast, including Anthony Hopkins as Lecter, Edward Norton as Will Graham, Harvey Keitel as Jack Crawford, and Ralph Fiennes as our serial killer referred to by police as the Tooth Fairy killer. They all give strong performances in their roles and the script and overall execution of the film are generally effective. However, the one theme that I come back to for what holds this film back is that in numerous ways it tries to be a prequel to Silence of the Lambs. Throughout, the filmmakers keep trying to copy or evoke the style, themes, and visuals of that film. The problem of course is that Red Dragon was the first book in the series, and thus is not a prequel. Red Dragon is its own self-contained story of which Lecter is a relatively minor character. The filmmakers do not focus enough on telling that specific story. This was one of the same problems that hindered Peter Jackson’s Hobbit film adaptations. The Hobbit was the first book and stands on its own as a story. It was not a prequel to Lord of the Rings, and presenting it that way both distracts and detracts from the actual story. Manhunter was released back in 1986 even before the Silence of the Lambs book came out in 1988. It benefitted from being able to simply tell its own story, without having to worry about replicating scenes or themes, or including references to other books or films, or to world-building of any kind. Overall, Red Dragon is still a good film that comes recommended from me, but it, like all of the Lecter films that came out after Silence of the Lambs, is hindered by refusing to leave the shadow of that film.

4. Hannibal (2001)

MPAA Rating: R

Hannibal Lecter quote: “People don’t always tell you what they are thinking. They just see to it that you don’t advance in life.”

Hannibal was the second film in the series to star Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter. It was based off the Thomas Harris novel of the same name from 1999, which is the third in the Lecter series. Hopkins’ performance is once again spectacular, and he is the true highlight of the film. In Silence of the Lambs his memorable and award winning performance of the character was contained to a few iconic scenes. However, in Hannibal he gets a lot more screen time, and one of the definite strengths of the film is the viewer never tires of seeing him as the character. Hopkins’ performance of Lecter is so engaging that he could just be reading a cookbook and it would still be at least mildly entertaining. While that is the strength of the film, it also points at the primary weakness of the film, which is that the film is too reliant on Hopkins to carry it. Hannibal as a film is a great example of ‘all style and no substance’. Director Ridley Scott does a great job re-creating the aesthetic and visual style of Silence of the Lambs on top of Hopkins’ solid performance. However, there is no real purpose to the film. The plot is essentially that a billionaire prior victim of Lecter (played by Gary Oldman) tries to use Agent Starling (notably played by Julianne Moore instead of Jodie Foster) to draw Lecter out of hiding in order to enact revenge against him. In this, the film is adequate I suppose, but it drops many of the narrative elements and dynamics of what made the Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs books and film adaptations so great, which is that they were police investigation films. The interactions with Lecter certainly contributed to and helped to drive the plot, but they did not define and encompass the plot. Here, instead of having more interactions with Lecter, the audience gets to watch Starling listen to recordings of their previous conversations. This causes Hannibal as a film to feel both hollow and indulgent in comparison to the aforementioned adaptations to the first two books.

5. Hannibal Rising (2007)

MPAA Rating: R

Hannibal Lecter quote: “Rudeness is an epidemic.”

First off, I do not intend to be too harsh with this film. It is definitely the weakest of the five Lecter films. However, there are numerous horror franchises out there of such low quality that Hannibal Rising would be the highlight of the series. So what I mean is that while this film is not exactly good, there is also a lot worse out there. As for Hannibal Rising itself, I always think of this movie as the embodiment of the trope of the unnecessary and underwhelming villain origin story that nobody wanted. People often complain about The Phantom Menace (and the other Star Wars prequels) stripping the mystery away from Darth Vader by overexplaining the character to the point of making him dull, pathetic, annoying, and boring. Hannibal Rising veers into that territory by embracing myriad clichés and pop psychology tropes about what makes people crazy. The film is based on the Thomas Harris novel of the same name from 2006, which is the fourth book in the series and is a prequel to the other three. In addition to the overexplaining of the villain problem, the film also falls into the same pitfalls as Red Dragon (2002) in that it is too focused on being a prequel and referencing and foreshadowing things in the later books and films, rather than establishing itself on its own terms as a story and film. The film also is overly indulgent in forgetting that Hannibal Lecter is a villain character. The plot centers around younger Lecter trying to track down and kill the Nazi collaborators that killed his family and in particular his sister. This frames him as an almost avenging hero (or at least antihero) figure. In that case it has a similar problem as Scarface. In Scarface, Tony Montana is a horrible person and while he is the protagonist he is certainly not a hero. But whereas that film smartly had Montana’s belligerence and violence catch up to him and lead to his own death, we get no such satisfying ending in Hannibal Rising, because of course as a prequel Lecter needs to survive for the other films. In short, this is a film consisting entirely of unsympathetic villains. And when it is a group of Nazi collaborators against the highly intelligent cannibal they helped to create, it is difficult to care too much about anything that happens in the film or any of their deaths. And when the audience does not care about what happens in the film, then it can hardly be considered an engaging or memorable film.