Loving Hannibal Lecter
How the cannibalistic serial killer gained his superfans
For many of us, our first introduction to Hannibal Lecter was via Jonathan Demme’s 1991 film, The Silence of the Lambs. Who can forget the delightfully sinister Anthony Hopkins’ psychological flirting with protagonist Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) while a deranged fellow prisoner masturbated in the next cell over?
Lecter is often described as a psychotic villain, a character who commits such abhorrent crimes that many consider him to be utterly immoral, with no redeemable qualities whatsoever; he operates on a level outside of, and above, the law. He murders. He tortures. He eats. It’s a revulsion that swirls around in the pit of our stomachs, burns at our core, and threatens to come up out of our throats.
But for some die-hard fans of the original tetralogy — The Silence of the Lambs, although first to show Lecter off to a new generation of viewers in its cinematic form, is the second in a timeline of four books — Hannibal Lecter is a tortured anti-hero, championed by those who are fascinated by the contradiction of genius doctor and cannibalistic monster.
Dr Lecter, any kind of hero? It’s not the impression most people are left with after spending time with a character who likes to eat livers with his libations.
