Movie audiences seem drawn, almost compelled, toward tales of the horrific and the repulsive. Partly because horror continues to evolve radically—every time the genre is deemed dead, it seems to come up with another twist—it has been one of the most often-dissected genres. Here, author Kendall Phillips selects ten of the most popular and influential […]
The Silence of the Lambs
Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) is pulled from her training at the FBI Academy at Quantico, Virginia, by Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn) of the Bureau’s Behavioral Science Unit. He tasks her with interviewing Hannibal Lecter (Hopkins), a former psychiatrist and incarcerated cannibalistic serial killer, believing Lecter’s insight might be useful in the pursuit of a serial […]
Misery
Novelist Paul Sheldon (James Caan) is the author of a series of highly successful novels featuring a character called Misery Chastain. Wanting to focus on more serious novels, he writes a manuscript for a new unrelated novel. He departs from Silver Creek, Colorado to head to Los Angeles but is caught in a blizzard and […]
Raising Cain
Dr. Carter Nix (John Lithgow) is a respected child psychologist. His wife, Jenny (Lolita Davidovich), becomes concerned that Carter is obsessively studying their daughter, Amy; he regards her like a scientist tracking the development of his creation. Carter actually suffers from multiple personality disorder. His multiples are Cain, a streetwise hustler, Josh, a traumatized little […]