Do you like horror? I certainly do!
Recently, I read both Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs. These pieces were beautiful to me– dark, and thought-provoking. In works of fiction, a foil is considered to be a character that contrasts with another. This contrast shows both the best and worst in both characters. In both the books and the TV show, Hannibal Lecter is the thematic foil of Will Graham, and vice versa.
While the book is a great read, there’s something about the TV show that sat with me. Something that made me think, “Who makes up the worst of humanity?”
This question is tackled in the show– we see it in the two main characters, Graham and Lecter. Who are these characters? Well, Dr. Lecter is a highly intelligent psychiatrist well-known for his clever analysis of his patients’ problems. Oh, and he’s a cannibalistic master chef, too. Will, on the other hand, is the FBI special agent hunting him. They’re tentative friends, and Dr. Lecter is Will’s psychiatrist. At the end of the show (though certainly NOT in the books), despite his best efforts to try and cling to both humanity and morality, Will is manipulated into becoming a monster by Dr. Lecter. He ends up not quite like Lecter, but mirroring the worst in him: ruthlessly violent; a killer. Not only this, he converts to cannibalism, breaking the strict moral code the special agent set with himself in the beginning of the show. Will and Hannibal run off together, trapped in a toxic, mutually destructive relationship that slowly drains away the last of their humanity. Will, desperate to free both himself and the world from the violence Dr. Lecter unleashed in him, throws both himself and Hannibal off a cliff in a scene he describes as beautiful. By the end of the show, we don’t know if he succeeded, leaving us to wonder which monster won.
The books are different. We know that neither of them won- Graham ends up mangled and mutilated and Lecter ended up in a psychiatric prison for his crimes. But the show, well, it was cut short. And this may just be what makes it so popular– we were left on an unintentional cliff-hanger. There are movies, too– Silence of the Lambs is exceedingly popular for Anthony Hopkins’s portrayal of Hannibal Lecter’s dark, twisted mind. In the following Hannibal-craze, books, shows, and movies would enrich the world of psychological horror.
As I explored in a previous article (The Biological Basis of Horror,) horror is addictive. Thrillingly so. Hannibal was a gateway novel for me– it introduced me to a world of the worst of us. I highly recommend reading Red Dragon if you like horror– or, if you don’t shy away from the genre as a whole. All this to say, the Hannibal series is a must-watch for any horror fanatic. I tend to ramble when I get excited, and so you have this article. It’s classic, it’s new, it’s ever-changing, it stays the same. Hannibal is an incredible read, watch, and binge– so check it out!
