History NightmareFuel / TheSilenceOfTheLambs

** The part with Catherine in the well, where the camera pans up and you see bloody trails and the severed fingernail from the last girl who tried to climb out and failed. The book has the added note that Catherine remembered reading about a girl's broken fingernails before that in an article about Buffalo Bill and realizes who has her. In the movie, Ted Levine's completely inhuman and mocking screams just pile on the horror. What’s particularly brilliant about this scene is that it shows a terrifying situation, something horrifying, sickening and disturbing... and yet something that’s instantly quotable and amusing to almost anyone who has seen it. That's scary.

** Agent Starling trying to find her way around in the dark, with Buffalo Bill just behind her, mockingly reaching out and not quite touching her. It's revealed in the novel that Mr. Gumb wanted ''Clarice's hair''. Let that sink in a little. *brr*

** A later scene where other guards storm the prison room and find said prison guard suspended in a backlit crucifixion position with a big hole in his stomach, innards missing. Together with the music, a Revolting Moment of Awesome... The whole part was terrifying. While transporting the surviving guard (who suffered severe facial lacerations) in the elevator, blood starts dripping down and he realizes he's on the roof of the the elevator. After he ignores the warnings of the SWAT team on the floor above, they shoot him in the leg without him even flinching. As soon as they open the hatch from inside the elevator, it cuts to the ambulance, where the guard sits up and we find out Hannibal had taken his clothes, and was using his face ''as a mask''. It's one of the most horrific examples of a GrandTheftMe ploy imaginable.

** Lecter's [[TheNoseKnows sense of smell]]. "You use Evyan skin cream...and sometimes you wear L'air du Temps—but not today." That moment is both weirdly erotic and incredibly creepy.

** When Gumb is trying to figure out how his "vest with tits" should be fastened, he thinks about how thrilling it would be to have someone zip up his back for him, and he knows that there are underground circles that would accept him. He also takes into consideration how it would feel to hug him. Whether he's simply delusional or referring to a community he is truly familiar with, the fact that Buffalo Bill did not think he was alone in this world is terrifying.

** The part with Catherine in the well, where the camera pans up and you see bloody trails and the severed fingernail from the last girl who tried to climb out and failed. The book has the added note that Catherine remembered reading about a girl's broken fingernails before that in an article about Buffalo Bill and realizes who has her. In the movie, Ted Levine's completely inhuman and mocking screams just pile on the horror. What is particularly brilliant about this scene is that it shows a terrifying situation, something horrifying, sickening and disturbing... and yet something that is instantly quotable and amusing to almost anyone who has seen it. That's scary.

** The scene where Hannibal beats the prison guard to death. When he's bashing the guards' heads in, [[http://i.imgur.com/BYFu7.jpg he almost looks bored]] by the violence; he is truly emotionless and dead inside. It's only outmatched by his brief SlasherSmile, which is [[http://i.imgur.com/bRmew.jpg truly disturbing]]. After an hour of pleasantries, winks, smiles and tears, it's unnerving to see this man, who we've heard horrible things about but haven't witnessed any of it, live up to his label of "true psychopath." It's debatable if he looks bored or if he is entranced by the killings, but it's scary either way.

* The poster for the film itself, which is Creator/JodieFoster's face altered into a NightmareFace, [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou looking directly at the viewer]]. Her face is [[UncannyValleyMakeup abnormally pale white]] and partially shrouded in darkness, her eyes have a [[RedEyesTakeWarning piercing, pale blood red color]], and...in place of where her mouth would normally be, [[UncannyValley you instead see a large yellow/black moth]] (specifically, a Greater death's head hawkmoth) with a ''[[MacabreMothMotif white skull]]'' on its body.[[note]]Which, considering how Buffalo Bill kills his victims, [[FridgeBrilliance is actually a great use of foreshadowing]].[[/note]] It's even creepier if one notices that the skull on the moth, [[EasterEgg upon closer inspection]], is actually [[TheWormThatWalks seven nude women arranged to look like a skull]]--a extremely small version of an human arrangement that's part of a famous photograph of Creator/SalvadorDali.

** For those who aren't used to AffablyEvil villains prior to watching this film, his first appearance comes off as this for another reason. The movie carefully builds up what kind of person Hannibal is--his cannibalism and how he once ''ate a nurse's face'' for no other reason than for his own sick amusement. The first prisoner Clarice passes in the corridor merely says hello to her in a sleazy manner; Miggs, the prisoner she passes next, utters a pungent, obscenely sexual taunt at her. And then we get to Hannibal--standing ramrod straight, making eye contact with her and uttering nothing more than a calm, perfunctory "Good morning", like a gentleman who is pleasantly surprised to receive a lady visitor. The dichotomy between his polite greeting and his known history of violence is incredibly disturbing before we even get to know the man.

** "It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again." Unless you insert [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAHp5lv4RQo inappropriate laughter]]

** Not only is the man a known serial killer and cannibal, he's also a genius. That's not what makes him scary. What makes him scary is his AffablyEvil personality. He has a charm and way of speaking to people as if he were engaging in everyday conversation with guests at a party rather than a trained FBI agent. Unlike the other inmates that Clarice encounters in the prison, Hannibal doesn't scream obscenities at her, he doesn't threaten to kill her, nothing like that. No, instead, he talks calmly to her as if she were one of his former patients or an old friend. The utter calmness yet menace in his voice shows that he is ''not'' someone you want after you.