Hannibal Lecter is one of the most terrifying movie killers of all time. He is a total genius, he knows exactly what he’s doing, its almost impossible to get into his head and he eats people! A lot of people think of Dr. Lecter and they think of the 1991 movie titled ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ starring Anthony Hopkins that gave an epic portrayal of the now infamous on screen serial killer. Anyone following the series knows that ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ is actually a sequel to ‘Red Dragon’ even though it was released eleven years later in 2002. All of the movies in this series are adapted from novels written by author Thomas Harris. Thomas wrote Red Dragon in 1981 and wrote The Silence of the Lambs in 1988 then went on to write Hannibal in 1999 and lastly Hannibal Rising in 2006. Not a lot of people know that before Anthony Hopkins put Hannibal Lecter on the map in ‘The Silence of the Lambs’, ‘Red Dragon’, and ‘Hannibal’ there was a film that pre-dated all of these starring the genius killer.

‘Manhunter’ came out in 1986 and starred Brian Cox as Hannibal Lecktor (spelled differently) and William Petersen (CSI’s- Gill Grissom) as William Graham. Technically ‘Red Dragon’ wasn’t a prequel, it was a remake. Both movies told the exact story but had some differences, lets start as we always do with the original and move forward to the most recent copy.

The Original (1986)

We start out of a beach at the home of a retired FBI agent named William Graham. He is being asked to help catch a mysterious serial killer known as the tooth fairy, because he bites his victims and his teeth are pretty messed up. Briefly in the story they touch on why he retired which was because he was cut up by a serial killer named ‘Hannibal Lecktor’. Although his wife is apprehensive about the job William accepts and quickly goes to the crime scene and uncovers some solid evidence that the others had missed. Graham was gifted at getting into the mind of the killer and thinking like they do, but he had lost the edge he once had so he goes to the cell of Dr. Lecktor to get his opinions despite his absolute fear of the man.

Lecktor has some pretty good input but it may be because he had been getting letters written on toilet paper from the Tooth Fairy that idolizes him. While cleaning the cell of Dr. Lecktor they find such a note and even though the center piece is missing they get some info that can narrow down the search some more. Shortly after the find they set up a fake story in the news paper that was full of bogus facts that belittled the killer. The story was ran by a butthead journalist that likes to exploit people for his own glory. The killer reads the story and kidnaps and later kills the journalist for his lies. Graham finds out how the tooth fairy selected each target and how he knew each target so intimately… he processed each targets home movies on video tapes and studied them. After Graham made the connection he finds the tooth fairy which is about to kill his blind girlfriend, and Graham bursts through the window and gets his ass kicked. As more police bum rush the house, the tooth fairy kills all who enter the premises with his trusty shotgun. As the tooth fairy comes back to finish off Graham, Gram shoots him and kills him. Thats pretty much it, I rate this movie a 4 for its lack of suspense and its over use of music.

The Remake (2002)

We start out at a dinner party hosted by Dr. Hannibal Lecter, showing that he is accepted by the noble crowd and that he has excellent taste. After the party is over he is visited by special agent Graham that he has been working with as a consultant of sorts to catch a cannibalistic serial killer. Little does Graham know that the man he is consulting is the man he is after! While Graham is brainstorming he says that they had been wrong about some of the case details and actually hits the nail on the head with his thoughts and realizes that Dr Lecter is the villain. Dr Lector, realizing this stabs Graham and Graham in turn stabs him with some of his artifact arrows and as he stumbles back he shoots him several times with his sidearm and they both pass out. Flash forward we are now aware through the opening credits that Graham had retired from the FBI and that Hannibal is convicted for his crimes and sits in a maximum security cell.

An agent played by Harvey Keitel, approaches Graham at his house on the beach and asks for his help. They desperately need help tracking a very smart and illusive serial killer and ask Graham to consult on the case. He reluctantly accepts and visits the latest crime scene quickly discovering valuable clues that the others had missed. Graham, like before is gifted at getting into the mind of a killer and can predict his moves but after being retired for some years, needs more insight than his rusty mind can come up with and goes to visit the man that almost killed him… Hannibal Lecter M.D. Dr. Lecter gives him some great advice, but while he was there Lecter figured out that he had retired and he now has a child and even knows their names which is a very dangerous thing. After another visit from Graham, Lecter exploits his use of the phone to contact his lawyer and gets Graham’s home address which he gives to the killer that Graham is tracking.

During a routine cell cleaning, the staff at the facility that houses Lecter finds a note from the killer written on toilet paper but a section was missing from the center which presumably contained details of how and where the killer is killing. After going to great lengths to put everything back just the way Hannibal had left them, they failed and he figures out they had found the note. Graham and the FBI’s lab technician figure out that they are running ad’s in the personals of a news paper and their message is coded inside the personals. The FBI analyzes the ads and finds out that Lecter had given the killer Graham’s home address and they quickly get his wife and son to a safe house. Graham and his team set up a fake story containing a demeaning view of the killer and he goes after the douchebag reporter that wrote it and kills him.

The killer sees more and more of the blind woman he works with and they hook up at his place. Graham makes the connection the same as before that he worked for a video tape company and goes on the search. The killer follows the man that takes his lady home and kills him outside with a silenced handgun and takes her to his place and sets it on fire and presumably blows his head off. The poor woman makes it outside and says he killed himself and she had even accidentally touched his dead body confirming it as she was getting out. The killer had cleverly taken the man with him and shot the corpse in the face to make her believe it was him. The police couldnt really make out the ID of the corpse because it was badly burned and disfigured. The killer makes his way to Graham’s home to kill him and his family but ultimately gets killed by Graham. The movie ends with Graham and his family sailing on the ocean, and Lecter getting asked to help in another case by another FBI agent named Clarice…. I rate this movie an 8 for its attention to detail and it’s creepy tone.

The Battle

Both of these films come from a book that wanted to tell you a few things.
1. The dangers of dealing with such a sadistic killer to get info on another.
2. Being on the hunt of a clever serial killer.
3. Trying to piece together a puzzle that appears unsolvable.
4. Dispatching the killer once found.

It also has to entertain you with a few things as well.
1. The over all story.
2. Entertaining lead actors.
3. The use of suspense.

The dangers of dealing with such a sadistic killer to get info on another.
Winner = Red Dragon
Why? Because of the added storyline that explained the relationship of Graham and Lecter before his retiring and not simply adding it in dialog. Red Dragon simply has more of Hannibal and his input.

Being on the hunt of a clever serial killer.
Winner = Red Dragon
Why? Because of the extra twist of the killer faking his death at the burning house to take the heat off of him so to speak and give him time to go after Graham’s family. The actual death of the killer was more action packed as well and less anti-climactic. In Manhunter, Graham comes in to take out the killer all guns blazing and gets his ass kicked then later fires some shots off ending the fight which was kind of lame.

Trying to piece together a puzzle that appears unsolvable.
Winner = Draw.
Why? Each film uses the same path to connect the proverbial dots to catch the main villain.

Dispatching the killer once found.
Winner = Red Dragon
Why? Like previously stated, the final fight of Manhunter was lame and Red Dragon had a more elaborate ending.

The over all story.
Winner = Red Dragon
Why? This film had more actual story to it. It had more Hannibal in it and it told the back story better to the relationship between Graham and Lecter.

Entertaining lead actors.
Winner = Red Dragon
Why? Anthony Hopkins is the only person in my opinion that can pull off the crazy smart and predatory persona that is Hannibal Lecter. And also, Edward Norton is an amazing actor too.

The use of suspense.
Winner = Red Dragon
Why? Both movies had the same amount of suspense until the end. There was simply more story to suspend you in Red Dragon. And also… that opening scene was pretty suspenseful too.

Remake Wins!

The 2002 remake starring Anthony Hopkins and Ed Norton takes the prize with a near shutout taking 6/7 or about 86% of the wins.