Alright - Holly's Horror Pick of the Day (brackets obscure division close brackets) is the one and only
Manhunter, the first adaptation of Thomas Harris'
EXCELLENT novel
Red Dragon, and the first appearance of Hannibal Lecter on our screens.
(Honestly, if you have never read
Red Dragon, stop whatever you're doing immediately and rush out and grab a copy! You will thank me, and then you will sleep with the light on for a month.
)
Red Dragon has been adapted into a film twice - once as
Manhunter in 1986, and again as
Red Dragon in 2002. The 2002 version featured an A-list cast recognisable from Silence of the Lambs (Anthony Hopkins as everyone's favourite psychiatrist, Anthony Heald as Dr Chilton, along with Edward Norton, Ralph Fiennes, Philip Seymour Hoffman (rest in peace, old friend... You were great, and you are sorely missed) and Emily Watson) and it had the type of budget and production values you would expect for such a great cast - but honestly, the obscure 1986 version blows it out of the water.
Manhunter was filmed with a lot of unknown actors on a shoestring budget. The sets are minimal (there are a lot of white walls in this film
), the acting can be wooden at times and the whole film screams "1980s!!!" at you from the first to the last - but the tension and the suspense and the fear are cranked up masterfully to an unbearable pitch. Tom Noonan's Francis Dolarhyde (the main villain) is one of the most genuinely spooky and frightening characters I have ever seen on screen. He is a big guy, and that high-pitched voice and blank expression make him seem truly unhinged and haunting. And the opening sequence - seeing him pick the lock of the front door, climb the stairs silently and massacre the family in their beds... Good grief, that is horror
at it's finest! You will look at the shadows in the corner of your bedroom at night and feel your heart pounding after that...
Manhunter - a film so good that you will end up loving its flaws just for being a part of it.
And once again, Red Dragon is an amazingly good book. Read it. You will love it.
The stuff of nightmares - Tom Noonan as Francis Dolarhyde
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