So with the fall/harvest season in full swing, I was recently playing a game of halloween themed trivia and one of the answers to a question under the horror movie classics category was The Silence of the Lambs. I got the question right, but was confused as to what would make someone classify this movie as a horror film when it’s listed as Thriller. It actually made me think back to another instance that occurred in highschool. My film teacher had his second year film students watching The Silence of the Lambs and I was in the room on my free period working on a project. I asked him what the movie genre his students were covering as we would watch a series of movies of a specific genre for a unit in that class. He said horror movies, and again I was confused. So I want to attempt to dissect what it is that makes people classify this classic thriller movie as a horror movie.
Alright with context as to why out of the way, I probably have to give a synopsis of the movie. On top of that I’ll add a disclaimer for anyone, who for whatever reasons, hasn’t seen the movie, I am going to have to spoil major plot points that occur in the film to explain where it likely got this horror connotation from.
Synopsis:
The Silence of the Lambs follows a recently graduated F.B.I trainee named Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) who is trying to put behind her West Virginia roots. She’s assigned to question Dr. Hanibal Lector (Anthony Hopkins) about a series of murders by an old protege of his Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine). Ultimately things start to turn dire with this case as Bill takes another Victim Named Catherine Martin (Brooke Smith) the Daughter of Senator Ruth Martin.
That is the general story without going into too much depth. From that alone I don’t really get the vibes of a Horror film. Then again maybe I’m biased as I don’t really care to watch horror films.
So with the synopsis I just gave and other ones I’ve read online, I’m not entirely convinced that this film could be mistaken for horror at first glance. But, then I remembered, oh yeah the main bad guy’s motivation for kidnapping and killing these women, which I left out of my synopsis, is to starve them in a hole to loosen their skin so that he could skin them to make a skin suit so that he could be a woman. Yeah…. I think a therapist and medical professionals could have given you a better, less murdery means of that my friend; then again this movie is from the 90s so getting any gender affirming care is probably just as difficult as winning the lottery. (Oh I also forgot to mention these women are also outright said to be slightly plus sized, more so around the hips. No joke, this is literally part of the storyline explanation on IMDB when you look up this movie. Take a look for yourself https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102926/)
So now we have the reason why this movie is possibly regarded as being a horror movie, but I’m still not convinced. I’m not saying that because I can say I wasn’t scared. I’m saying that because I was on the edge of my seat, not knowing what was going to happen next. Because at one point the guy that the F.B.I brought in to try and find Catherine and Clarice are both rushing to the location they think shes at and deep down you know Clarice has it right but there is still a part of you that’s saying if she is right she’s doing it alone and if she isn’t the other guy is going to take credit for all of Clarice’s efforts to find Bill and Catherine. That is not the response someone who is scared has.
Ultimately I feel like they are the only other thing that probably causes this mistake in genres, likely due to our tendency to lump thriller and horror together. See thriller movies are often filled with moments that are very suspenseful. Guess what horror movies also have a lot of? If you guessed suspenseful scenes, congrats; cookie for you. See The Silence of the Lambs has quite a few scenes that draw out the eventual pay off. From Clarice taking down Buffalo Bill, to Lector’s grand escape. These scenes last for quite a while before that final payoff. I think that this may have aided in people thinking the film is horror. I think the dread that builds up during these scenes over time accidentally makes people forget that the movie is a thriller and not a horror.
But hey that’s just me probably pulling at strings and there is probably some other reason why people think that the movies a horror film and to be honest, I don’t think I care all that much about what genre people think the film is. At the end of the day it’s a good film. So after reading this I have to ask dear reader, “have the lambs stopped screaming?”
