Rich On Red Dragon

If you ask anyone to name the scariest film of the last 12 years, chances are The Silence Of the Lambs will crop up in the conversation. Indeed, Hannibal Lecter was recently voted the No.1 serial killer of all time. Quite what this says about the voting public, I'm not sure.

Anyway, Lecter was top and this made me wonder. I mean, Lambs was scary but Hannibal? It sucked more than a Dyson factory and was about as scary as my left foot (I don't mean the film, literally mean my foot.) It was so poor that I left a copy of it in the street and people put money into a paper cup so it could buy itself some dinner.

To be fair the book was just as bad, if not worse. The makers, though, knew it had mass appeal. It made a packet at the box office so a sequel was in the offing. But thanks to the screwed-up ending, so different from the book's, it was time to follow a recent trend and think about a prequel.

Disturbed

Red Dragon is the original Lecter book, written by Thomas Harris, but with very little mention of the popular killer. That, too, was once adapted for the screen in the guise of Manhunter, with Lecter played by the journeyman Brian Cox and William Petersen as the lead character, Will Graham.

This time round, however, Hopkins reprises the role that has made him enough money to buy a small country, with Edward Norton playing his nemesis and the man who caught him, Will Graham. Picking up at the point where Hannibal is incarcerated, we find out that Graham has retired from the FBI and is too scared to go back after a brush with death. That is, until the Tooth Fairy pops up and starts slaughtering families, apparently quite randomly. There's only one man who can solve this case, so the Feds get in gear and pull Graham out of retirement to crack one last case.

The reason Graham is so good at his job is because he is disturbed. He can follow the thought pattern of a serial killer, he can feel what they feel and use that talent to work out what they have done and, maybe, their next move. This, for me, is a fascinating angle and is the basis for the book. Not here, though, as Ed Norton has taken the role on and can't quite find the requisite darkness to convince us for a second that he's even close to psychotic. But as a detective story it's clever and interesting enough to engage.

Freak show

Although Lecter appeared for all of a few minutes in the original, this time his role is spruced up and extended. But don't be fooled, he's not the key to the film. The real bad guy is Francis Dolarhyde. An ugly, cleft-lipped freak show who has suffered a life of abuse as a child and became schizophrenic. His hatred of himself causes him to smash mirrors. Now, picture who you would put in this role. An ugly person, probably. Not here. Ralph 'I'm the sexiest English export' Fiennes takes up the challenge of looking ugly by sellotaping a fake scar to his top lip and talking kinda funny. About as scary as my other foot then.

At the core of this film is a great story. The book was excellent and Manhunter was very good, if somewhat dated now. Although it removed some major parts of the book it still made a great film. Red Dragon, though, adds some crucial book elements but because Lecter's scenes have been extended, it is very badly paced. Making the most of Hopkins' time they shoot scenes with him purely for the sake of it and the film suffers.

On top of that, he just isn't scary anymore. Much like Freddie Krueger, he pulls out one-liners and winks in the general direction of the camera. I actually heard more laughing in the audience in the first five minutes than I've heard in many a comedy film. It annoyed me because I watch Hannibal to be scared, not amused.

Tame

In all, it's a good film, if you've not experienced the book or, indeed, Manhunter. Like I say it's a good story and as long as it's faithful to that book it can't go too far wrong. But the director seems to have dropped the ball, badly paced and with too much comedy. Brett 'Rush Hour' Ratner has somehow managed to make a scary plot quite tame.

The performances are great, though, and that's a major saving grace. Harvey Keitel is nicer than usual and I've always had a thing for Mary Louise-Parker, who plays Graham's wife. Emily Watson pulls out a solid turn as Dolarhyde's blind love interest, too.

But it's film-making by numbers and there's not a lot else I can say about it. It isn't very scary but the actors are good enough to make you want them to survive the horror¿ if indeed that's what it is.

Rich
Sky Unit 2 Reception
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