Buffalo Bill, a psychopathic killer, has kidnapped a Governor's daughter and is torturing her. Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) is a young FBI trainee assigned to the case. Her only hope to catch Bill is to get Dr Hannibal Lecter (another psychopath, played by Anthony Hopkins) to tell her who/where Buffalo Bill is.

Hannibal escapes, by pulling off the face off a security guard, puts that face on top of his, then lays as dead until backup arrives. He then escapes in the ensuing commotion.

He phones Clarice at the end of the movie to tell her he will not come to get her. "The world is a much better place with you in it," he tells her.

"Something for those afraid of the dark. Brought out before we really knew much about nightvision goggles."

"An unlikely escape if you come to think about it, but still, at the time it had us screaming from the roof tops."

"Problem is, after this movie, Hopkins did a load of Grandfatherly roles, thus losing his evil genius touch."

"Much copied, but this is the original, Oscar winning, blood and giblets masterpiece."

When this movie came out it had us all hiding our faces behind our hands (or were we really, subconsciously, holding our faces on? It is all a fear filled blur today, I am afraid!)

I have never been able to watch a drag act in quite the same way since, and, were the lights to go out mid-performance, I feel quite sure I would scream myself to unconsciousness.

A horribly claustrophobically vicious movie, although the nose biting scenes are, thankfully, not shown in detail. Not a movie you might like to watch over and over unless you have a predilection for the deeply distressing, in which case hopefully you are watching this in some sort of secure establishment..

Today, with modern technology as advanced as it is, we can confidently sleep restfully in the knowledge that these people are safely behind bars and are being watched by security cameras 24/7, unless they haven't been caught yet, which, of course, is another matter entirely.

Cell phones, too, make some of the scenes less threatening, and why does Starling have to do everything on her own? She really is a spine chilling tease... Still, one of those movies in popular consciousness you have to see to understand popular jokes, in particular Dr Evil.