Analysis - Silence of The Lambs

Silence of the lambs - thriller, horror (psychological), mystery 

 

Iconography (the typical aspects show): 

 

• Shadows 
• Cliffhangers 
• Character growth (shown through clarice) 
• Multiple points of view 
• Ticking clock (or short span of time) 
• Likeable protagonist 
• Lowkey lighting 
• Tension
• Silhouettes - enigma and mystery for the audience 
• Shadows build up fear within audiences by instigating that the protagonist is being watched by the antagonist.  

*some movies from the broad thriller genre
 

Setting:

 

• Dark, scary places such as dark woods, abandoned warehouses with limited lighting. The absence of light signifies the abundance of evil.
• Darkness creates an eerie feeling of mystery making the audience try and think of what’s around the corner - unable to see 
• Feel tension as a key factor of the movies involves the building of curiosity and suspense to frighten the audience or essentially, “thrill” them

 

Primary features:

 

• Strong feelings of excitement, anxiety, tension, suspense, fear and other similar emotions in its readers or viewers. 
• Lots of silence and then abrupt sounds
• Camera focuses on graphic aspects (shown through the long onscreen time of the graphic images)  

 

Theme:

 

• Mental health 
• Good vs evil 
• Nurtured evil 

 

Characters:

 

• Amateur cops
• Intelligent killer
• Psychopathic killer
• Cops vs deranged killer 

 

Silence of the lambs:

 

• Set in a basement of an ordinary house (therefore seeming unlikely as though someone is held captive)
• Devious cannibal (viewed as the antagonist at the start) is in prison and knows information about a serial killer currently on the loose and  is the most wanted. 
• FBI agent takes on the case and visits him in prison and gets information out of him, in exchange for her information (trauma) 

 

 

Thriller:

 

• Crime procedural 
• Mystery 
• Psychological thriller 
• Horror — through imagery and Lowkey lighting 
• Suspense 

 

 

Narrative:

 

Binary opposites:

 

• Soul vs evil
• Intelligence vs unintelligent
• Men vs women 
• Calm vs frantic 

 

Unrestricted narrative: where the audience knows more than the characters 

• To create suspense
• When lecter gets a pin from the pen (zoom in on pen to denote that) 

 

Restricted narrative: when the audience and the character learns at the same time 

• When we first meet Buffalo bill — face isn’t revealed 

 

Depth of narrative:

 

• Subjective — clarice’s memories are shown 

 

Plot and story:

 

• Plot: in the FBI’s woods 
• Story: Hannibal and kill bill and what they do