Demme is not interested in blood and guts for the sake of shocking the viewer, but rather the character’s emotional and psychological reaction to the violence. [...] It is this emotional investment that makes Demme’s film so frightening.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 25, 2025

Its impact on movies is still being felt today, and it includes arguably the best performances of both Foster and Hopkins' careers.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Nov 10, 2024

The crux of this excellent thriller is the battle of intellect and wills between them [Clarice Starling and Dr Hannibal Lecter].

| Aug 2, 2023

Suspenseful and shrewd, Hopkins’ Lecter is one of the most fascinating villains in film (despite less than 20 min of screen time). In spite of his contemptible reproach and steely demeanor, there’s just something about Lecter that makes us root for him.

| Jun 8, 2023

Most books, plays or films never give us even this much. Yet The Silence of the Lambs gives us so much that it's a shame the film doesn't find ways to deepen its concentration on the colossal aberrance of the minds of its complementary terrors.

| May 9, 2023

The transformation between the two protagonists is truly outstanding. [Full review in Spanish]

| Apr 12, 2023

The film flows from beginning to end without a single detour on its fatalist course. [Full review in Spanish]

| Jan 20, 2023

A failure that is a function of its success.

| Dec 7, 2022

An exceptional thriller; a film that puts us in the shoes —and in the eyes— of its protagonist as very few other productions have managed to do, introducing us to a world of killers and cannibals and the FBI agents who chase them. Full review in Spanish.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Sep 1, 2022

Most viewers will be rooting for Foster's Starling all the way up to the expertly directed denouement -- a darkly whimsical ending that would have been utterly unacceptable in the old days of the Production Code.

| Aug 8, 2022

It is a freak occurrence of the right director, the right script, and the right cast making something that transcends genre and reshapes popular culture.

| Original Score: 10/10 | May 17, 2022

Throughout the movie, Demme gets across more terror than a dozen Friday the 13ths by showing not the horrifying thing itself but the faces of people looking at horror.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Mar 23, 2022

Grand Guignol is too mild an expression for a work in which every scene is an exercise in repulsion. But I couldn't wait for what happened next and would have to admit that this is an excellent, if morally reprehensible, film.

| Mar 23, 2022

The Silence of the Lambs is one of the most intoxicating and absorbing thrillers ever made.

| Mar 23, 2022

The Silence of the Lambs is something exceedingly rare and invaluable in movies these days: an accomplished, intelligent -- and genuinely scary -- thriller.

| Mar 23, 2022

As played by Anthony Hopkins in the performance of his film career, the amoral psychiatrist dominates the picture -- a remarkable feat, since Jodie Foster is the top-billed star and also does a superb job.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Mar 23, 2022

The other thing that gives Silence its special charge is Hopkins' powerfully ingratiating performance as the formidable villain. Every second he's on the screen, you can't help but feel uncomfortable.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 23, 2022

A bone-chiller of superior intensity.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 23, 2022

Scott Glenn's low-key portrayal keeps things anchored in normalcy and provides a scale against which the depths of Hopkins' malice and Foster's troubled nature can be measured.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Mar 23, 2022

As the old advertising campaign said, keep telling yourself it's only a movie. But what a movie! It is quite simply one of the very best of its kind.

| Original Score: A | Mar 23, 2022