Rated: R
Director: Michael Mann
1986

You are scared and alone in the basement. "Thank god for Ted Turner" The radiation from the screen is humble and quiet. "It must be the last fifteen minutes," you think. The VCR proves the calculation to be correct; fear beckons the observance. Shotgun blasts and pantyhose mask: a killer walks tall, his most recent massacre ending in blood-winged glory. All of this, to the hypnotic drone of Iron Butterfly's "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida."

"What is this movie?"

I was fifteen during the above scenario, and I only learned the answer four years later while working at a video store. It appears on television every now and again, losing little to editing.

Manhunter is the somewhat obscure prequel to 1991's Silence of the Lambs (dir. Jonathan Demme). Hannibal Lecter is present but portrayed by a different actor (Brian Cox). We begin with Detective Will Graham (William L. Peterson), a sort of "Amazing Kreskin" with psychopathic killers. A previous encounter leaves him reluctant to take on the sort of job his skills require.

Graham's target is unknown to the characters until the end, but Francis Dolarhyde (Tom Noonan) is out to "become as God is," murdering entire families with ritualistic pomp. Dolarhyde's killing patterns follow the moon cycles, and it is Graham's task to end his crimes before the next full moon. He risks much, including endangering his family, hospitalization (as in the previous case that is only hinted at in this installment), and losing his own mind.

The story itself is a paradoxical struggle. Graham enters the mind of a maniac through a sort of meditative concentration. He will think like the killer, and if Graham's thoughts are correct, then the death toll will end. He soon realizes that within himself -- within all of us -- there is an inner-murderer. It's not so much a channeling of Dolarhyde's actual thoughts, but rather a summoning of the detective's own latent homicidal instinct. When Detective Graham "goes to work" it is a somber scene, full of intensity far more impressive and dangerous than any snooty Holmes deduction.

As usual, a book preceded the movie. Thomas Harris' novel Red Dragon provided the foundation for Manhunter. The third installment in the Lecter trilogy, Hannibal (dir. Ridley Scott), is due on the silver screen February 14, 2001, a rather unique, appropriately twisted date for a horror film. Silence was released on the exact same day ten years ago.

Manhunter is a good movie. It's not super good, but it's definitely worth renting any time (older titles are almost always discounted) or catching on TV. When customers at a video rental house need suggestions for a movie, invariably this would be my recommendation. It's quiet and slow in some places, so it's not so good as a party/group movie, but with a reasonably intelligent partner it can be an entertaining flick.