Apart from the fact it’s well written, well directed and well acted, “Lambs” completely changed the way we thought about horror films.
In the past, horror films involved an antagonist that was scary because they were violent for no well defined reason, except maybe they didn’t like teenagers having sex. They were silent monsters without a thought in their brain except to kill, kill, kill. They were also really, really ugly.
(Typical horror movie antagonist - Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, a good film in its own right).
“Lambs” gives us two antagonists in its “plot within a plot” format (which itself created an innovative storytelling technique), The first is our “main” antagonist:
Meet “Buffalo Bill”. Bill isn’t a homicidal maniac, but he is a killer. He’s not crazy, just deeply disturbed. Bill thinks he’s transsexual, but he isn’t. He doesn’t use a chainsaw, he uses a couch to lure in his victims and a pit to finish them off. Bill’s actions aren’t random - he wants to make a suit out of human skin which he can wear to look like a woman. He picks his victims very carefully - overweight young women who he starves so their skin will be easier to harvest. He’s also fairly smart.
However, he’s picked the wrong victim. The FBI is after him, and they have chosen this young agent to help hunt him down - she’s our protagonist.
Meet Clarice Starling - a pretty young FBI agent straight out of the academy. She soon realizes she’s a pawn in the FBI’s game, but she’s damned if she’s going to let this career opportunity go to waste. She’s been chosen to try to manipulate another killer, and here is where the horror genre is blown out of the water.
Hannibal Lecter. Possibly the scariest character in movie history. Currently serving multiple life sentences in a specially constructed cell which he never leaves. He was a psychiatrist who was obsessed with killing people and eating them. He would have gotten away with it too if some FBI agent hadn’t lucked out. The agent barely survived his encounter with Lecter. However, despite being extremely dangerous he’s also incredibly intelligent, outwardly charming and supremely manipulative. He’s our secondary antagonist.
Hannibal has information the FBI needs. They hope Clarice will appeal to him and he will give up the identify of Buffalo Bill. Bill’s case is well known to Hannibal, but the FBI thinks that Hannibal knows his identity.
But Hannibal’s problem isn’t with Clarice, it’s with this butthead:
Doctor Frederick Chilton. Hannibal’s pretty much at the mercy of this butthead, who takes delight in torturing Hannibal for his own purposes. He’s also trying to help out the FBI and thinks he can do it by putting pressure on Hannibal. He’s our secondary protagonist. Essentially, it’s a race between him and Clarice to get the information out of Hannibal. However, Chilton’s primary motivation is to make Lecter’s life a living hell.
Let’s just say that nothing goes to plan and examine some of the other ways the story is told.
The entire theme of the movie is manipulation, with each character at some point trying to manipulate one of the others to get their way. Even Clarice gets into the act, offering Hannibal the chance to actually spend some time in the “real world” on a beach on an island. Manipulation and counter manipulation run rife as when a character realizes they are being manipulated, they often manipulate back (Hannibal knows they won’t let him out of his cage).
The movie also allows the audience to be engrossed in the story at several points, allowing them to get inside Hannibal’s mind at several points. Not to give too much away, watch for the scene where Chilton can’t find his pen (don’t worry, you will know exactly where it is) and one where they find a dead guard in the elevator shaft (yeah, you will figure out what’s going on right away then too).
And like any good horror movie, the move implies more horror than it actually reveals, and keeps you on the edge of your seat sometime waiting for something bad to happen.