Next weekend, “The Silence of the Lambs,” a 1991 American thriller, will be playing at the Woodland Theater in Davies Center. I give the film a B-.

“The Silence of the Lambs” stars Jodie Foster (Starling) and Anthony Hopkins (Lecter) and blends horror and crime genres. The story revolves around Clarice Starling, an FBI trainee who seeks advice from brilliant psychiatrist turned cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lecter.

Going into this movie I had no idea what to expect. I knew Lecter was a serial killer and cannibal, but I was not aware of the story being a crime drama.

The movies greatest highlight was Anthony Hopkins’s performance. Lecter is a cold, calculating strategist who uses his knowledge and intuition to get what he wants. His training as a psychiatrist and his personal perspective as a serial killer helps Starling catch the primary villain, Buffalo Bill, played by Ted Levine.

Silence of the Lambs main theme is sexuality.  Shown in scenes involving the villain Buffalo Bill and the main protagonist Starling. There is a scene where starling is traveling with her boss to a local police station and her boss says to minor cop characters “I do not want to discuss the case details in front of a woman.” He then says he needed to say that to get the men to cooperate.

In contrast to that scenes with Starling interacting with Lecter; a level of respect between the two in Lecter’s own twisted way. A scene after Lecter has escaped custody, Starling talks to a co-worker saying she knows Lecter won’t come after her because he would consider it rude to do so.

The thing I found the least appealing of “The Silence of the Lambs” was the gore horror elements.  Buffalo Bill is very intimidating as a mad serial killer and the scenes involving him are mentally scarring, but visual elements of gore primarily with Lecter are not that convincing. I expected more gruesome visuals when he acts out at other humans with his taste of human flesh. But my perspective might be diluted because modern cinema has improved visually on gore.

This film is a good psychological thriller, to today’s standards. Elements of the movie have not aged well, but the performance of Anthony Hopkins as Lecter is amazing, and the intimidating performance of Frank Levine as Buffalo Bill stands tall today.

“Silence of the Lambs” is considered culturally and historically significant by the U.S. Library of Congress and was selected to be preserved in the National Film Registry in 2011, according to BBC News.