I'm watching 'Silence of the Lambs' for the first time

[Oeditpus Rex]

Do films get any creepier than this? :scared:

[Blue Belle]

1. I hope you're not by yourself...

It's waaay too scarey to watch alone.

[Oeditpus Rex]

4. Yeah, I'm alone

But I'm a big boy.





Who may want his mommy in a few minutes.

[nytemare]

2. Just keep from helping any creepy guys put a sofa into a van.

And don't stick your tongue out to Dr. Lechter.

:P

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

25. Actually that (the first part) IS a good lesson from the movie. The script

took that from Ted Bundy's old tactic, he'd have an arm cast to evoke sympathy/vulnerability, and ask his victim for help, directions, whatever, and bludgeon them unconscious or into submission when they were "in his web". Now he didn't have furniture he was moving, or a van (he actually drove a VW bug, I guess that wasn't conspicuous in those days), but he made the cast thing work for him.

[grace0418]

46. Actually, I was just reading that he did ask for help hitching

a boat or something to his VW bug from some women. He told them the cast made it difficult to hitch it. None of those women apparently questioned WHY he would be asking them instead of a burly guy to help out, but that's another ball of wax.

[DawgHouse]

3. What a great movie!

My DH told me the other day that he's never seen it either.

[ronnykmarshall]

5. One of the BEST films !!!

Love that movie.

[SeattleGirl]

6. Great movie, OR. Great CREEPY movie!

:scared:

[Roon]

7. I love the "tuck" scene

It freaks people out..LOL

[long_green]

37. That scene is a bravura piece of acting

When Gumb does the "tuck," a look of humiliation and disgust with his body flashes across his face. Ted Levine had a career in that one scene.

[UCLA02]

54. Still freaks me out...

15 yrs later. Kinda reminds me of someone...

[Jamastiene]

8. Believe it or not, there was a show on television the other night

that totally creeped me out. It was the one where the girl was afraid of leaving the house and she went missing. It was Without a Trace. Anyhow, they were looking for evidence and next thing you know the lady cop person looks out the window and sees this face in an apartment building window looking back at her. What was creepy was the fact that the face quickly disappeared. That, for some odd reason, really gave me the creeps. I think it has to do with the fact that I have a fear of two legged animals especially when I think I am alone. I should write a book or movie. I could write great horror. I know creepy. I have the most fears of anyone around, it seems.

Don't worry though. Something like Silence of the Lambs is so outlandish that it rarely ever happens. But then again there is a real serial killer around NC and SC that is cutting women's bodies up after he kills them. Cops think they have caught the guy, but I don't think so. All his neighbors are saying he's a nice guy and didn't do it. They are probably right. The local serial killer has killed in my county but our local PD and papers have hid the truth from us. Luckily an Anson County sheriff talked about it in their paper and one of my teachers warned me one evening before I left for home. Lock the car doors, ladies, if you live in NC or SC. There is a sicko on the loose here.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

9. Well, there was Ed Gein, who was the inspiration for both Psycho

and The Silence of the Lambs. Weird old guy, lived on a farm in Wisconsin with his religious nut mother, killed a bunch of his neighbors, skinned them and made lampshades... And don't forget about Jeffrey Dahmer.

[Jamastiene]

11. You are right.

There is a sicko running around in NC right now. Cringe. Dahmer was a real piece of work, but Gein was something else. I read about him on the Court TV Crime Library when I was doing a research paper last semester. The paper was on Dahmer, but I read about several of them before I decided Dahmer was a lightweight compared to Gein and some of the others. Let's not even think about the Japanese guy who ate women after killing them. He is walking free in Japan right now because he was a prince or some other kind of royalty. They are nuts to let that guy get by with it, but they do. I remember hearing about Gein cutting squares out of the buttocks of little girls and making dinner out of the flesh. :puke: I'm weird, but I have never had any urge whatsoever to eat human flesh. How does one develop that type of hunger, I wonder?

Out of my mind comes the lesbian who was raped and gets revenge in horrid ways. I don't want to offend any of the good men of DU, but if I ever wrote the book, it would make Silence of the Lambs look like child's play. :evilgrin:

[khashka]

24. He also inspired Texas Chainsaw Massacre

"Killed a bunch of his neighbors"? Not quite. He killed either 3 or 4 women. He may or may not have killed his brother in a "hunting accident". (Shades of Dick Cheney, eh?).

What Gein mostly did was read the obits for funerals of older women and then go dig up the bodies. He'd try to pray them back to life. Which failed, duh! Then he'd flay them, eat what was edible and use the rest for home furnishings. The flaying is an important fact - because he stitched the skins together to make a "woman suit" that he would wear and go dance in the moonlight. (Silence of the Lambs?)

Gein was actually much liked by his neighbors and often babysitted for them. Everyone liked him but thought he was a bit slow or a bit off. But they trusted their children in his care.

I read the book the trial judge wrote and his take on the whole thing was a mix of disgust and pity. He actually felt sorry for Ed. Ed could have been a great guy - but his obsessive love/hate relationship with his abusive mother turned him into a monster.


Interesting fact about Dahmer - when they did the autopsy, they shackled the corpse. Scared to death he'd come back to life just like in a horror movie. Educated medical people still felt scared by him even after he was dead. Well I feel sorry for Dahmer and Ed Gein. They did terrible things. Which I abhor. But all they wanted was to be loved. And they didn't get it.

So lesson #1 in a series of thousands: love your children unconditionally. You can't know where your love or lack of love will go....


Khash.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

27. Yeah, I used to think "NO ONE is THIS weird" when I read Harris' books.

But when I read the details of Dahmer's little spree, or the Ed Gein story...

Dahmer, sheesh... the cannibalism. Keeping skulls, bones (among other things) as trophies. Trying to make zombies out of his not yet dead victims through trephination (drilling holes in their head and putting weird stuff in there).


http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/notorious/dahmer/index.html

Not surprisingly, his need for control led him to dabble with Satanism. In fact, just having the bodies of his victims around him made him feel "thoroughly evil." "I have to question whether or not there is an evil force in the world and whether or not I have been influenced by it. Although I am not sure if there is a God," Dahmer said," or if there is a devil, I know that as of lately I've been doing a lot of thinking about both." He had plans to create a shrine in his apartment, featuring all of his trophies, his statue of a griffin, and incense burned in the skulls of his victims, so that he could receive "special powers and energies to help him socially and financially."

Park Dietz, the psychiatrist who interviewed him in prison, had this to say about Dahmer's obsession with Star Wars:

"He really loved the power that Darth Vader had to intimidate and influence those around him," muses Dietz, as we're shown a creepy drawing Dahmer made for Dietz of an altar he wanted to build from the painted skulls of his victims.

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

34. As I Brit, I've got to mention Fred & Rosemary West

West was born in Much Marcle, Herefordshire, into a poor family of farm workers. He left school aged fifteen, academically undistinguished, and began work as a casual labourer. After a spate of petty crime and a conviction for child molestation, resulting in the pregnancy of a thirteen-year-old, he moved away from his rural home until 1962.

He married Catherine (Rena) Costello, a prostitute, in November 1963 and they moved to Glasgow. She gave birth to a girl, Charmaine, in March 1963 and another girl, Anna Marie, in 1964. During this period, West was working as a casual labourer and an ice cream man. In late 1964 they moved to Gloucester, and West took a job in an abattoir. Their marriage under strain, the Wests separated, and when she returned in 1966 he was living with another woman, Anna McFall. West killed the pregnant McFall around July 1967 and buried her in a field near Much Marcle. Rena returned to live with him and their children for a short time before leaving again.

In late 1968 West met Rosemary Letts (b. 1953). She became pregnant by him, something she concealed from her parents until West was serving a short prison sentence for unpaid fines. She left her family home and moved in with West in Midland Road in Gloucester. She gave birth to a girl, Heather, in 1970, and often neglected the older children. Charmaine died in mid-1971 while West was still in prison, probably at Letts' hands. West dismembered the body upon returning from prison, and hid it under the floor. Rena returned to Gloucester in August 1971 looking for her children. West murdered her and disposed of the body near his childhood home. The couple married in January 1972, but West regularly encouraged Rose to prostitute herself. Rose gave birth to a girl, Mae, in June 1972, and the family moved to a new home at 25 Cromwell Street, an unprepossessing three-storey house.

West adapted the cellar as a place for his wife to work, extending and soundproofing it. It was there that West raped 17-year-old Caroline Owens, whom they had taken in as a nanny, in late 1972. West was arrested and went to trial in January 1973, but he was only fined. West then began following a pattern: young females would come to their home as lodgers or to care for the children and would be abused and then murdered. The first victim was Lynda Gough, murdered shortly after West's trial. The second was 15-year old Carol Ann Cooper, abducted and murdered around November 1973, and the third was Lucy Partington (a relative of Martin Amis), murdered in January 1974. The bodies were dismembered and disposed of under the cellar floor as West extended and renovated the building.

Lucy Partington, Carol Cooper, Juanita Mott and Shirley Hubbard were murdered from 1973 to 1975. They were all buried under the cellar floor. There was a hiatus before Shirley Robinson, a pregnant ex-prostitute, was murdered in July 1977 and buried in the garden. Later that same year, the Wests abducted, abused, tortured and killed Alison Chambers and Therese Siegenthaler.

Rose was often pregnant, and gave birth to Tara (December 1977), Louise (November 1978), Barry (June 1980), Rosemary Junior (April 1982) and Lucyanna (July 1983). Tara, Rosemary and Lucyanna were not West's children.

If the Wests continued their behaviour after killing Chambers and Siegenthaler, they did not conceal the bodies in the house. The next woman to be buried at Cromwell Street was West's daughter Heather. She was murdered and buried in the garden some time in 1987.

Following the report of the rape of a minor, police obtained a search warrant. After examining the house, they arrested West for rape and sodomy of a minor and Rose as an accomplice. Police interviewed the Wests' children, discovering the abuse and the mysterious disappearances of Charmaine, Heather and Rena. The six surviving children still at home were taken into care.

The rape case against West collapsed when the two main witnesses declined to testify. However, the police obtained a further search warrant in February 1994, allowing them to excavate the garden in search of Heather. The police began searching the house and excavating the garden on February 24, 1994. On the 25th, after the police had uncovered human bones, West confessed, retracted and then re-confessed to the murder of his daughter, denying that Rose was involved. Rose was not arrested until April 1994, initially only on sex offenses. The extended search and the grisly finds prompted much media interest.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_West

[Oeditpus Rex]

10. Thing is, the film is so well done

that you believe it could happen.

And like ocelot just said... it has.

Lotta freaks on this planet. :scared:

[Floogeldy]

12. I'm glad you finally came out of your coma!

;)

[deadparrot]

13. I'm having a good friend for dinner tonight.

:hi:

[NMMNG]

14. It puts the lotion on its skin, or else it gets the hose again.

:evilgrin:

[Maddy McCall]

15. :scared:

That's the freakiest part of the movie. Utterly disturbing. :scared:

[NMMNG]

19. That is one creepy guy

:hide:

[LostinVA]

41. He totally deserved a Best Supporting Actor nomination

[NMMNG]

44. Very true

I know if I ever ended up in his clutches I'd be terrified. :scared:

[UCLA02]

48. See post 45.

NT

[XemaSab]

16. That's a terrific film!

Good stuff, good stuff!

[Oeditpus Rex]

18. Oh, yeah

Wonderfully acted and directed. But still creepy. :scared:

[XemaSab]

20. The acting and directing MAKES it creepy

Good stuff!

[Oeditpus Rex]

21. Yeah...

That's what I meant.

Cha!

[reyd reid reed]

49. You ever read it?

The book is....just....

"Red Dragon" is incredible, too. The book, I mean. I didn't see the movie.

"Hannibal" sucked.

The book was bad and I understand the movie was even worse. Don't let the temptation get you.

[pitohui]

60. i liked hannibal

most of these series thrillers are just the same thing after another

hannibal went in a wildly different direction from what you could have predicted

courage!

the movie version was a little bit pulled its punches tho

[barb162]

17. Tony Hopkins is brilliant in that role

[maveric]

55. Won th Best Actor Oscar with only 18 minutes on film.

I found that hard to beleive so i put in the DVD and timed it. Its Twuuuue!

[Cannikin]

22. One of my top films of all time.

[LostinVA]

23. It's pretty damn creepy -- and a "A List" movie

Doesn't get much better than that!

[Frank Cannon]

26. Now dig up the ORIGINAL "Lecter" movie Manhunter...

and see how it's really done. Michael Mann direction, terrific "Miami-Vice" like soundtrack, and a great performance by a young William L. Petersen as the FBI guy.

I've never cared for any of the Anthony Hopkins Hannibals. That guy's performance is so hammy and cheesy it should come with hot mustard and a pickle on the side. Serial killers are supposed to be rather normal-appearing and acting, or how would they have any victims? Brian Cox has a MUCH better, more understated, and creepier performance in Manhunter.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

28. Bryan Cox (?sp?) is EXCELLENT as the first Hannibal, too, extremely

creepy performance.

"Do you dream much, Will?"


On Edit: There also is one TERRIFYING scene in "Manhunter", when the reporter has been abducted, and awakens to the slide show, and gradually figures out where he is and what's going to happen. That's one of the scariest things I've seen in any movie.

However, I think as a whole, "Silence" is better just on the strength of the various performances and direction as a package. But the sequels sucked, and "Manhunter" is infinitely better than "Red Dragon". Between the novels "Red Dragon" (the book that was the source of "Manhunter") and "Silence", I personally feel that "Red Dragon" is much better.

Hopkins' Lecter in "Silence" is one of the great hammy performances of all time, and I mean that in a good way, where the hamminess and scenery chewing (and CAST chewing in this case LOL) is one of the strengths of the film. He obviously learned a thing or two sharing a screen with Peter O'Toole in "Lion in Winter", which has two of the OTHER all time great hammy performances.

By the sequels I think the Hannibal character was a bit of a tired shtick. Once there have been jokes about eating livers with fine chianti on Ace Ventura, where do you have to go, really?

[Frank Cannon]

29. And they're supposedly making ANOTHER Hannibal movie

Ugh.

I agree with you about the scene with the reporter in "Manhunter". You just know it's not going to go very well.

The beginning of "Manhunter" is, IMHO, among the most amazing of all "crime" movies ever. You see dark, grainy footage of the top of a van, a flashlight going up the stairs, and a man and a woman waking up in bed, then darkness. You wonder what the hell that was all about. You eventually find out.

BTW, a little "Manhunter" trivia: William Petersen and Tom Noonan purposely never met the entire time they worked on the film, until the last scene involving their climactic showdown. They wanted to maintain the suspense of meeting each other to the end. After they shot that gruesome scene, they went out to the IHOP to have breakfast together!

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

32. LOL.. The Great Red Dragon would like the Swedish Pancakes, please,

with ligonberry butter! :) Yeah the beginning scene is very strong.

Actually inidividual scenes in the film are great (beginning, Peterson with the tape recorder at crime scene, Lounds kidnapping, Will and Lecter conversation) but for whatever reason I just don't think it's as strong as a package... I feel it's kind of too 80's dated with Simply Red soundtrack and other Michael Mann touches, but I do like the movie though.

[henslee]

40. Poor Bryan. We lost him just as he was hitting his stride.

[Frank Cannon]

42. WTF?!! Don't even kid about that.

I just looked him up on IMDB and Google news and, thank the Goddess, it appears he's still alive.



I've loved this guy in everything he's ever been in. He plays "menacing" like no one else on Earth.

[henslee]

57. Sorry. I brain freezed. Was thinking of Brion James.

[Frank Cannon]

59. Now, THAT guy was taken from us too soon

"Wake up! Time to die!!"

[mitchum]

38. That is the BEST one...

the storyline is also far more believeable, and as a result, more chilling.
None of that evil genius/ Professor Moriarty nonsense.

[Frank Cannon]

43. "Have you ever seen blood in the moonlight, Will?"

"It's quite black."

(Spoken matter-of-factly and off-the-cuff by Brian Cox's Lecter like he was talking about tax planning or something.)

Now, THAT's a serial killer. Anyone who saw Anthony Hopkins' over-the-top nutcase coming would be running away screaming before he could even get near them.

[bertha katzenengel]

30. Do films get any creepier? Nope. eom

[bridgit]

31. "it puts the lotion on it's skin."

:scared:

[livetohike]

33. Some of my friends were extras in the movie

so I was "forced" to watch it. :scared:

[JitterbugPerfume]

35. no , they do not

don'tcha just love it?

[begin_within]

36. Well, now we know what DUers are into.

[henslee]

39. Actually, its a comedy.

[UCLA02]

45. Yes, it DOES get creepier... *LINK*

Gotta watch this if you are at all familiar with the movie...

http://kontraband.com/show/show.asp?ID=2121

No text necessary at this point. I'll wait for the responses.

Extremely. Fucking. Creepy.

[maveric]

53. That was awesome! I just forwarded that to my sicko friends.

[UCLA02]

56. Couldn't get it out of my head!

The first time I heard it I was sitting in bed checking my email on my laptop one last time before retiring for a sound slumber and my friend IMs me with this. Needless to say I was humming it for the next hour, staring at the shifting shadows on my coset door.

[TK421]

47. Well....now that you mention it....for your listening enjoyment...

http://www.silencethemusical.com/

[Orsino]

50. It doesn't get any creepier, or...

...it gets the hose again.

[MissMillie]

51. Fabulous thriller.... very well done.

The acting, the directing... stupendous.

[AllegroRondo]

52. Anthony Hopkins ad-libbed many of his lines

[In_The_Wind]

58. Anger, social resentment, sexual frustration...

He kills women...







:scared:
:hide:

[dpbrown]

61. "I'm having a friend for lunch."

:rofl: