The Silence of the Lambs
Rymario Armstrong
LE300 Integrative & Interdisciplinary
Donna J. Strong
July 7, 2019
The serial killer sub-genre is the most eminent in the movies for a long time now. The serial killer in real life as well in movies are anathema to the people. Indeed their terrifying way of the taking human lives is what battered the audience and people in real life. Many movies have released rendering the serial killer inspired from real life. True stories behind the notorious murder made the movies horrifying and entertaining. Some renowned Hollywood movies which inspired by the true life events are “The Silence of the Lambs (1991)”, “Seven [Move quotation mark. Place the quotation mark at the end of the title, before the year.] (1995)” and “Psycho (1960)”. Psycho is a real-life inspiration of Ed Gien, who shot and killed two women. Psycho is one of the most eminent movies ever. The two predominant characters of Psycho Norman Bates and Gein were fond of their mothers and obsessed with them. The scenario gave an inkling to the pundits that Gein murder women and make a dress to look like his late mother from their skin. Wisconsin a store owner went missing and Gein was the last one who saw her when he purchased antifreeze. Gein mysterious nature gave an inkling to the police who later one searched his place. They found Worden’s body and his whole house covered with the human remains. It was discovered subsequently that Gein visits the local graveyard very often to exhume bodies. Gein and Bates were sent to the mental institution where Gein died but Bates was released in the sequel.
The Silence of the lambs is vehemently petrifying movie based on the three killers who confined and tortured three women and killed two of them. Gein in psycho used the skin of his victims, Gary Michael Heidnok kept his captives in a basement. So, these serial killers are the gruesome elements of society. The serial killers have long-standing history which conspicuously implies that they are not the phenomenon of the contemporary society only. The way serial killer have rendered within the film have evolved with the time. Indeed producers now revel on newly and highly aggravating ways of violence practiced by the grisly characters of the serial killers to make batter the audience.
The Silence of the Lambs [Use italics for book and journal titles and quotation marks for article, TV series and movie titles] had received 5 Oscars due to its realistic depiction of the serial killer which potently inspire the audience. In The Silence of the Lambs, the young FBI cadet elicited the help of a manipulative and incarcerated, cannibal serial killer to help and catch another serial killer who is vacuous skins his target. Inspired by the true story of Gary Heidnik who is rendered by Buffalo Bill in the movie who was a petrifying assortment of the four other murderers Gein, Gary Heidnik, Ted Bundy, and Edmund Kemper. There are many points to focus on such as Gary M. Heidnik solely targeted the African-American women. This could be a depiction of his anathema for African-American. Gary was defended by his lawyer who attempted to prove him legally insane. However, his insanity was rebutted successfully by the prosecutor as he had $550,000 in his bank account which signified that he was not insane. Gary in real life was not diagnosed with any sort of psychological disorder which made it limpid that his action was truly based on his abhorrence and his vehement contempt towards the African-American women. It was a sheer example of racism which was soft-peddled due to the severity of the gruesome practiced by the serial killer (Demme, 1991).
The reason why The Silence of the Lambs was admired by the audience was partly due to [Use “due to” when following a form of the verb “to be” (is, was, were, etc.) to modify a noun. Otherwise, use “because of,” “caused by,” etc.] its realistic depiction of the serial killer’s horror and terror. Dr. Hannibal Lecter is another imperative character of the movie. Dr. Hannibal got blue perturbing eyes and a horrifying smile. The terror and mystery of the Hannibal character are rendered in an influential way. Even though in the movie Hannibal is depicted as a serial killer and psychiatrist and surgeon by occupation. In real life, Hannibal was not a serial killer. The character of Lecter was inspired by the Mexican doctor named Alfredo Balli Trevino. Alfredo was an inquisitive, well-spoken and psychologically intricate surgeon who was convicted for a brutal murder. In the movie, Hannibal was shown as one of the creepiest and nuanced villains ever (JEDDI, 2016).
Throughout the movie, an eerie, dark motif is profound. The perpetual eerie musical theme is one of the effective non-visual technique opted by the director of the film Jonathan Demme. This music and the dark theme influence the audience especially when Clarice found the dark incidents brought about by Hannibal and Buffalo Bill. The music possesses some real sounds that are mixed by the experts, [Comma splice or run-on sentence. Rewrite as two sentences, or separate the main clauses with a semicolon.] these realistic sounds give meaning to the scenes. In one of a scene, Dr. Frederick Chilton tells Clarice how Lecter took the life of one his victim and revealed that “His pulse never got above 85, even when he ate her tongue.” [What is your source for these ideas/this quote? If you have used outside sources, please cite them. Anything that is not common knowledge requires a citation.] During this scene one could clearly hear the background sound of the heartbeat, stirring an eerie effect and depicting the height of evil within the frightening statement. The diegetic sound could be heard when Clarice entered Buffalo Bill’s house. But she becomes jittery and frenzy when a light goes out downstairs. The sound of heavy breathing left audience tizzy. The terror batter Clarice in these scenes which obviously did not utilize the relentless eerie musical theme.
The film has ample cinematic technique that aptly imparts the scenes. The horrifying film is indeed relishing to watch. The psychological disorders possessed by the serial killers have not depicted. The agitating words said by Hannibal to Clarice were baleful and horrifying. The Silence of the Lambs is a radical depiction of a real-life serial killer named Gary Heidnik and Alfredo Balli Trevino. This is one of the reasons behind the unprecedented success of the movie. We can see a significant resemblance of the events to the real-life incidents and the narration given in the novel by Thomas Harris. The psychoanalysis of the movie is indeed hard (Lighting, Lambs, and Lecter, n.d.).
[The essay contains many awkward or unclear phrases. Reading the essay aloud will help you locate these phrases and other problem areas.]
References
Demme, J. (Director). (1991). The Silence of the Lambs [Motion Picture].
JEDDI, M. (2016). TV and Film portrayals of serial killers compared to real life cases. MEDIA PSYCHOLOGY.
Lighting, Lambs, and Lecter. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://hhholmesscaresme.weebly.com/the silence-of-the-lambs-film-analysis.html