He has no ethical qualms about killing or consuming his victims. His mind is acute. His decisions are not as much immoral as they are amoral; Lecter does not believe in right vs. wrong in terms of his own behavior. He is far more concerned with his own personal victories in outsmarting a system he is familiar with, of proving himself to be a superior human being with greater intelligence than the mass of humanity he belittles by his cannibalistic behavior. He mocks humanity, he self-aggrandizes, and he makes no excuse for his actions except as a form of self-indulgence. Neither Lector nor Starling change dramatically during the course of the movie, but Starling does become wiser after her encounters with Lecter. Her innocence is all but absent toward the end of the film, but she is nevertheless as optimistic and as professionally driven as she was when she first became a federal agent. Hannibal Lecter changes not one bit; he is a complex character but a static...

Suspense is the keynote of the film. The audience does not know what will become of Agent Starling: whether she will survive the investigation let alone gather enough information to apprehend Bill. What makes Silence of the Lamb remarkable and an enduring work of film, however, is how deeply disturbing subject matter like cannibalism is woven into a real-world setting. Cannibalism is rarely hinted at in film and even more rarely addressed in a film that is not purely slasher-driven. Silence of the Lambs not only includes cannibalism as a subject matter but also warped notions of gender and sexuality such h as Bill's attempted sex change and his conflicted, closeted homosexuality. Its subject matter is dark and disturbing, adding a dimension of horror that is absent from many if not most other films in its genre.