cannibalism – R&D Gothic Discoveries

Hannibal Lecter… For those who know who this man is, does the only mention of his name give you goosebumps? What do you feel when hearing about him if not fear? Well, maybe you think he is somehow nice, and you feel empathy for him, but either way, Lecter is a very interesting character, and this is why I decided to see what makes him so frightening for most people. The novel I will take as a reference in this post is The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris, originally published in 1988.

The first thing is that he is in fact a very charismatic man. For example, when Clarice Starling, the investigator, goes to the psychiatric hospital to meet with Lecter, a patient called Miggs talks to her in a crude and rude way, which would suggest that this man may be mentally deranged. On the contrary, during her first visit at the hospital, Lecter is extremely polite with her, and acts like a gentleman. Indeed, his gentleman-like behaviors make him even more scary since there is no way someone can know whether he is “good” or “bad” without previously knowing from the beginning that he murders people to eat them afterwards.

Lecter needs information to use his psychological power. Without information, he is lost. This means that without information, he has nothing. This reminds us slightly of Dracula from Bram Stoker’s novel, right? Dracula’s power comes from the information he obtains from the blood he drinks, or from the years he has lived. Hence, to stay alive in this modern world, he seeks information. It is similar in the case of Hannibal Lecter. He is indeed a surgeon, but also a psychiatrist. Psychiatry requires a superior knowledge of how the human brain works, and also of social behaviors, which can often be associated to different mental illnesses. Therefore, a psychiatrist must know his or her patients in order to help them properly. The problem in Lecter’s case is that he may be too good at his job, for he instantly knows much information even before the person tells anything. Moreover, once he is told some information, he is able to play with one’s mind to make him or her do what he wants to a certain extent. An example of his need of information is when Clarice Starling investigates the case of Fredrica Bimmel, and for all the information he gives her, he asks for information about her in return, despite the fact that Crawford clearly told her to avoid revealing to him any personal information.

Briefly, if you are boring, according to his standards, you will not last long. The issue is, we do not know how Lecter defines “boring”. This means that there is no way we can adjust to him to avoid being killed because we do not have any clues as to what he considers as boring or not. Therefore, we are kept in obscurity when it comes to Hannibal’s thoughts while this knowledge is the only thing that could possibly save us from a horrible death. In other words, Hannibal does not need to have a motif to kill. It does not matter to him whether we did something wrong or not. That is, he can decide to kill someone because that person did something he disliked, or just because a person is not entertaining enough for him.

Finally, the previous characteristics make him the “perfect” serial killer, but they also show that from the outside, he is the most ordinary human being. Hence, from this fact, another frightful thought arises: there could be a Hannibal Lecter everywhere we go. We do not know what is going on in other people’s minds, and if Lecter is able to hide his true nature so well, then, how many people are able to do it too?

After reading these traits of character, are you now scared of Hannibal Lecter? I know there are many opinions about whether he is good or bad, and it is actually quite interesting to see that a serial killer can make people hesitate in that manner.

Are you one of those who think he is fundamentally good, or fundamentally bad? Or neither?

DelphineC

What elements make a horror movie a “good” horror movie? There are obviously many of them, but an important one is the monster(s) in it. We must admit that sometimes, a horror movie is not even that good, but the monster in it is really interesting, either because it is intellectually superior, or just because it is unbelievably scary. In both cases, I thought it would be interesting to mention some of the scariest movie monsters I know about, as well as the movies they are presented in, so we can all be scared together! There are some of them that are quite popular; others may be less known…

The first one I will mention is Freddy Krueger. Freddy’s character is quite complex to explain, mainly because so many movies were made with him as the principal villain. In fact, there are seven movies, which are A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984), A Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985), A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987), A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988), A Nightmare On Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989), Freddy’s Dead – The Final Nightmare (1991), New Nightmare (1994)and Freddy Vs. Jason (2003). There is even a remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010). The story of Freddy, in short, is that he was killed with exposition to a deleterious gas, which explains why he looks like this. He was executed because he was a serial killer, with a tendency to prey on children. But he came back from the dead… unfortunate, isn’t it? So, he went on killing children, often while they were asleep, which, in my opinion, makes it even more terrifying.

The second one is Jason Voorhees. Jason is also a serial killer, but unlike Freddy, he does not kill because he “enjoys” it. Indeed, his motivations can be considered as more “valuable”. Jason suffers from severe physical deformities and presumably mental disabilities. For these reasons, he was persecuted in his childhood, most precisely at a summer camp called Camp Crystal Lake, where his mother used to work as a cook. Briefly, Jason killed for revenge, and to respect his dead mother’s wish for the camp to stay closed. Does it justify his killing people? Probably not. But for a reason or another, it does seem less troubling than Freddy’s motivations, right? In case you would want to watch them, here is the series of films in which Jason is: Friday the 13th (1980), Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981), Friday the 13th Part III (1982), Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984), Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985), Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986), Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988), Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989), Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993), Jason X (2001) and Freddy vs. Jason (2003).

Hannibal Lecter in the movie “The Silence of the Lambs”
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Ok, now let’s talk about Hannibal Lecter. Yes, there are movies about this monster, but obviously, the books are better, and there are four of them. Anyway, the point is to talk about the killer. Hannibal likes to eat humans. Isn’t this a disturbing fact in itself? The most terrifying thing about Lecter is that he is incredibly intelligent. I mean, everyone is afraid of a serial killer, but if the serial killer is more intelligent than the vast majority of the population… It is better not to think too much about it. Another disturbing thing is that Lecter can actually be a gentleman, that is, a polite and kind man, as long as you entertain him. Yes, you read well. As soon as he will be bored with you, you may end up in his dinner plate. If ever his character would interest you, you may find him in: The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Hannibal (2001), Red Dragon (2002) and Hannibal Rising (2007).

One of the three brothers in the movies “Wrong Turn”
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Finally, the last monsters I want to talk about are three brothers. Indeed, it is possibly a reference to Hannibal Lecter, because these three brothers are cannibal. We do not know much about them, except that they were presumably patients in an asylum which is now abandoned, and for some reason, they are still in that asylum. Since we do not know the characters very well, the reason I mention them is because if you like trashy horror movies, then you will surely like these ones, and once again, there are many of these: Wrong Turn (2003), Wrong Turn 2: Dead End (2007), Wrong Turn 3: Left for Dead (2009), Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginnings (2011), Wrong Turn 5: Bloodlines (2012) and Wrong Turn 6: Last Resort (2014). I personally had my hands covering my eyes for at least half of each movie. 😊

This is not a long list of monsters, but it is certainly a long list of movies involving these terrifying monsters. Have fun! 😊

DelphineC

Tag: cannibalism

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