Director Brett Ratner's haunting and stylish crime drama prequel "Red Dragon" was nowhere near as successful as "The Silence of the Lambs," but it remains to be a chilling and unforgettable psychological deep-dive into Hannibal Lecter's journey from man to monster. The film follows Harris' novel more closely in terms of the characterization of the serial killer Francis Dolarhyde (the "Tooth Fairy Killer"), yet treats Lecter as the main focus of the story rather than just a secondary character, as he was presented in Harris' novel and in Mann's "Manhunter."
Lecter's eerie penchant for robotically controlling his body and mannerisms makes him an ideal living, breathing vessel for embodying evil. How can somebody so cold and calculating evoke such warmth? That's what makes Lecter, due to Hopkins' stellar performance, one of the most fascinating (and deadly) serial killers ever brought to life. He loops the audience into his world and it's almost as if they don't want to come out of it, despite the fact that he is an insane killer who enjoys feasting on human flesh. Lecter has a strange ability for making viewers feel sympathetic towards him even though he is unimaginably cruel.
In a scene early on in "Red Dragon," Agent Graham visits Lecter in the Boston State Forensic Hospital. While there, he has a conversation with the hospital's arrogant head director Dr. Frederick Chilton (Anthony Heald) who reveals to Graham that Lecter is "impenetrable to psychological testing." Lecter is too brilliant to let anybody get into his head and, just as he subjects Clarice Starling to his spot-on insights about her, so does he with Graham.
