Underrated Art: Manhunter

Though Silence of the Lambs is the most renowned and critically acclaimed film to feature the fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter, the 1986 film Manhunter is arguably superior (I believe it the greatest serial killer film of all time). As decades have passed, critics have increasingly acknowledged that Manhunter was tragically overlooked.

While Anthony Hopkins’s manic performance as Lecter captured an Oscar, the version of Lecter portrayed by Brian Cox in Manhunter is chilling in a far different way. Cox plays Lecter with an understated detachment to emotion and suffering, making him much colder than Hopkins’s version. He is an empty vessel that follows a violent pathology and lacks any ability to decipher right from wrong. Cold and calm indifference disturb the viewer more than ferocity in this film.

What also makes Manhunter so disturbing is how it hints at deep similarities between the FBI agent hunting the serial killer and the serial kill himself. The film dares to suggest that it takes the mind of a serial killer to catch a serial killer, and one could posit that the two are born with similar souls. The editing and color hues emphasize an eerie symbiotic relationship between law and lawbreaker. This play with duality is territory that The Silence of the Lambs barely treads on.

Manhunter was ahead of its time, as was its beautiful and haunting synth-laden musical soundtrack. It’s well worth listening to the motion picture soundtrack. Do nothing. Just listen. I find it to be a very immersive experience.

Here’s once of my favorite tracks, “Seiun / Hikari No Sono”.