The Silence of The Lambs Criterion

Academy Award-winning composer Hans Zimmer has created a blood-pumping dramatic score for Hannibal that pulses with Wagnerian intensity. Sir Anthony Hopkins's monologue on three tracks adds a dimension of hair-raising eeriness to the already deeply affecting and suspenseful instrumental backing. (Just hearing him first enunciate on the opener "Dear Clarice" sets up the Pavlovian sense of dread.) Hopkins's Hannibal Lecter is still on the prowl 7 years after FBI agent Clarice Starling first interviewed the criminally insane doctor (and 10 years since The Silence of the Lambs hit the theaters). This sense of uneasiness is captured alternately by deep, sustained notes and the rapid attack of a full-throttle orchestra. Whether it's the dark, tonal clusters of "Firenze Di Notte"; the desperate, descending notes that punctuate "Virtue"; or the chorale solemnity of the 10-minute "Let My Home Be My Gallows," the intent to horrify never waivers.