Hannibal Lecter is one of the most famous serial killers in film history, while he needed two attempts to fame. His first use in Blood moon – red dragon (OT: Manhunter) was far too little attention. You can do that tonight Masterpiece by Heat director Michael Mann on television catch up. It is particularly worthwhile, precisely because it is largely dispensing with the explicit representation of violence of other serial killer films.
Blood moon is based on the first Hannibal Lecter novel by Thomas Harris
When the blood moon came to the cinema in 1986, Hannibal Lecter was little more than a secondary figure in a serial killer novel. The focus is on the tormented FBI profiler Will Graham (William Petersen from CSI), who Murderers of two families hunt. One of his stations is the imprisoned forensic psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter or at that time still “licking gate” (Brian Cox from Succession), where he is looking for advice. However, he plays his own game. At the same time, the history of the serial killer Francis Dollarhyde (Tom Noonan) is told that comes closer to a colleague (Joan Allen).
Michael Mann’s third feature film disappointed at the box office. Two years later, Thomas Harris published his novel the silence of the lambs. The film adaptation of Jonathan Demme brought Anthony Hopkins an Oscar and From now on he was the Definite Hannibal Lecter actor. This in turn led to the disappointing remake of the first novel in 2002.
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Why the remake is so disappointed – and Michael Mann’s film is cult today
Brett Ratner’s red dragon was bursting with stars, but the serial killer film lacked both the shivering darkness of the silence of the lambs and the stylish of blood moon.
Michael Mann’s film still captivates today with his expressive color scheme, the figures in the deepest night blue, red or, in the case of Lecter’s prison, diving dazzling. This gives the film a non -real, almost fairytale look. Blood moon therefore feels like that Hypnotic journey into the consciousness of Will Graham on, which in turn incorporates the imagination of the killer. If the real violence breaks into Will’s imagination, it hits you all the more.
It was not until 2013 that a worthy remake by Roter Dragon was published. The Hannibal series with Hugh Dancy and Mads Mikkelsen found their own strange picture in 3 seasons to depict the journey into darkness. 37 years later, it is still worth seeing Hannibal’s first canvas appearance. This is now considered one of the best representatives of his genre.
Look at the blood moon on TV and stream
Blood moon becomes aka manhunter on March 23rd from 11:15 p.m. at 3SAT broadcast.
If you want to catch up with the film, you can stream it from the Amazon channel Moviecult in the subscription or buy and borrow it as a VoD.
This article was first published in a similar form in July 2023 at Moviepilot.