I scratched another Saturn Award winner for Best Horror Movie off of my list of movies to watch yesterday, and, this time around, it was 1991 winner, “The Silence of the Lambs.”If you’ve never seen this movie, it’s about FBI agent Clarice Starling, who seeks the aid of confined serial killer, Dr. Hannibal Lecter, in order to bring another serial killer, “Buffalo Bill,” to justice.
Based on Thomas Harris’ 1988 novel, “TSOTL” is one of the best movies of all time and is one of only three movies to win the top five Oscar awards – best actor, best actress, best director, best picture and best screenplay. (The other two films to pull it off are 1934’s “It Happened One Night” and 1975’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”)
“TSOTL” stars Jodie Foster as Agent Starling and Anthony Hopkins as Lecter. Hopkins, who appears on screen just over 16 minutes, put on such a powerful performance as Lecter that Lecter was chosen No. 1 in the American Film Institution’s list of Top 50 Greatest Film Villains. Starling was chosen No. 6 on the AFI’s list of Top 50 Greatest Film Heroes and was the highest ranked female on the list.
“TSOTL” was also the first film to win the Best Picture Oscar that was widely available on home video at the time of the Oscar ceremony. Prior to “TSOTL,” only two other horror films - 1973’s “The Exorcist” and 1975’s “Jaws” - were ever nominated for a Best Picture Award. As of this writing, “TSOTL” is still the only horror film to win an Oscar for Best Picture.
Many of you will recognize the movie’s poster, pictured above. It was voted No. 16 in Premiere magazine’s list of “The 25 Best Movie Posters Ever.”
Released in February 1991, “TSOTL” amassed worldwide revenues of $272,742,922. (Yes, that’s over a quarter of a billion dollars.)
From here, it’s on to 1992 Saturn Award winner, “Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” which starred Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins and Keanu Reeves.
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