It is also only the third film in Academy Award history to win every major category. It’s terrifying to this day, and I still think of this movie every time I hear “American Girl” by Tom Petty. Starling is a new recruit who needs Lecter’s help catching a serial killer, and he uses the opportunity to entertain himself with a game of mental cat-and-mouse.

Anthony Hopkins kills (ha!) as Hannibal Lecter, and Jodie Foster is amazing as FBI agent Clarice Starling.

Jonathan Demme’s classic psychological horror masterpiece is one of the only movies that is as good as its source material. He has one scene in Manhunter, and he’s quite good, but if you’ve seen Anthony Hopkins and Mads Mikkelsen, it’s not going to be your favorite. Most people don’t realize it, but Lecter was played by Brian Cox first. (Or ‘Lecktor,” as it’s spelled in the credits.) Hannibal Lecter also makes an appearance. William Petersen plays Will Graham, and he is hunting a creepy serial killer, played by the criminally underutilized character actor Tom Noonan. Pastel colors, cheesy music, stylized visuals. It’s directed by Michael Mann (who was responsible for Miami Vice) and it’s basically like Miami Vice meets Hannibal Lecter. Oh, what a glorious piece of film this is now! Manhunter (based on the book Red Dragon) is definitely a cult classic.

Now would be the perfect time for a marathon viewing-especially while enjoying a nice Chianti and some fava beans. Here’s a look back at all of the on-screen adaptations of Thomas Harris novels. And of course, the gorgeously dark and disturbing television show! The novel’s titular character, Cari Mora, is the mansion’s caretaker, who comes up against ruthless men who seek to take the gold.Īlmost every Harris novel has been adapted for television or the big screen, from Black Sunday and Manhunter, which was based on Red Dragon (but is different than the Red Dragon movie), to the other Hannibal Lecter movies, like The Silence of the Lambs. Harris’s new novel, Cari Mora, is about a mansion on the Miami Beach waterfront where twenty-five million dollars in cartel gold lies buried beneath it. Thomas Harris, the creator of The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal Lecter, has a new novel and I could not be more excited! I’ve basically been Googling “Thomas Harris new book” every week since 2006, when I finished reading Hannibal Rising.

Cari thomas books in order