Hannibal Rising

11/1/2015

What made Hannibal the beast he was? Indeed, director Peter Webber and author Thomas Harris bring us Hannibal Lector (ne: Lecter) the formative years. Off the bat you have to say it's not overtly a horror film, something which has proved to have annoyed many who ventured in expecting something different. Which on one hand is a shame because it's a very effective thriller, ripe with literary smarts and boasting some very good acting performances. While there is horrors around, genuine ones that history has taught us as fact. On the other hand it is a disappointment to fans of the Hannibal series, and to horror fans in general. The marketing didn't help, it was sold to all and sundry along the lines as the cannibal begins in earnest, thus nobody was quite prepared for the fact Hannibal

5/31/2026

I’ve always equated Hannibal Lecter with the Shark from Jaws. Sure, the good doctor is a more entertaining host — until he gets peckish — but they both essentially kill to feed. That’s all the motivation they require. How silly would it be to give a shark a tragic origin story? About as silly as setting a film in Lithuania and France with French and Lithuanian characters and then having everybody speak English. Or assigning Hannibal (Gaspard Ulliel) a Japanese mentoress (played by a Chinese actress) who teaches him martial arts, which he must have tucked away in the attic of his Memory Palace and never bothered to dust off ever again. Or shooting a scene where Hannibal finds and wears a mask that must have belonged to a cannibalistic samurai. Hannibals puts it on and looks straight ahea