Hannibal Lecter (Movies)

Hannibal Lecter: a psychiatrist with a deadly secret

Dexter Morgan: a serial killer whose sole goal is to hunt other serial killers

WHO IS DEADLIEST!?

Brief History
Hannibal Lecter is introduced in the 1981 novel Red Dragon as a brilliant psychiatrist incarcerated after having been revealed to be a cannibalistic serial killer. The novel depicts FBI Special Agent Will Graham, who originally captured Lecter, consulting him to catch serial killer Francis Dolarhyde, known only to law enforcement and media by the pseudonyms "The Tooth Fairy" and later, "The Red Dragon."

Lecter appears in the 1988 sequel The Silence of the Lambs and assists an FBIagent-in-training named Clarice Starling in catching a serial killer known only as "Buffalo Bill". Lecter and Starling form an unusual relationship in which he provides her with a profile of the killer and his modus operandi in exchange for details about her unhappy childhood. Lecter eventually stages a dramatic, bloody escape from captivity and disappears.

Following the success of The Silence of the Lambs and the immense popularity of the character, Harris wrote a third novel titled Hannibal released in 1999. It takes place seven years after the end of Silence of the Lambs and starts with Lecter residing in Florence, Italy under an assumed name, while Mason Verger, one of his surviving victims, attempts to capture him, intending to feed him to a pack of wild boars. Lecter returns to the United States to escape Verger's Sardinian henchmen, but they soon capture him anyway. Starling comes to rescue Lecter, only to be knocked unconscious; after orchestrating Verger's death, Lecter carries Starling to safety and the two escape. Having figured out that Starling's corrupt superior, Paul Krendler, sold them both out to Verger's men, Lecter recruits Starling in avenging themselves on him. He kidnaps Krendler, drugs him, and performs a craniotomyupon him. Lecter, Starling and Krendler himself then feast upon his brain, before Lecter kills him with a crossbow. Afterwards, Lecter and Starling become lovers and they disappear together, to be last seen by Lecter's former ward orderly, Barney Matthews, in Buenos Aires.

In 2006, Harris wrote a prequel to the Lecter books entitled Hannibal Rising. Harris undertook the project after Dino De Laurentiis (owner of the cinematic rights to the Lecter character since Manhunter) announced that he was going to make a film depicting Lecter's childhood and development into a serial killer with or without Harris' help. Harris also wrote the film's screenplay. The novel explains that Lecter is born into an aristocratic family in Lithuania in 1933, and that he and his little sister Mischa are orphaned in 1944 when invading German andSoviet forces storm the family estate. Shortly thereafter, Lecter and Mischa are captured by a band of Nazi deserters, who murder and cannibalize Mischa before her brother's eyes. The death of his beloved sister is extremely traumatic for Lecter, rendering him temporarilymute and sparking his fixation with cannibalism. Lecter escapes from the deserters and takes up residence in an orphanage until he is adopted by his uncle Robert and his Japanese wife, Lady Murasaki. As Lecter grows into a young man he forms a close, pseudo-romantic relationship with the widowed Murasaki and shows great intellectual aptitude, entering medical school at a young age. During this period, he receives tutelage in the Japanese martial art of kenjutsu by Murasaki, who descended from a house of Hiroshima Samurai. Despite his seemingly comfortable life, Lecter is consumed by a savage obsession with avenging Mischa's death. After experiencing his first taste of murder, Lecter methodically tracks down, tortures and murders each of the men who killed his sister, in the process forsaking his relationship with Murasaki and seemingly losing all traces of his humanity. The novel ends with Lecter being accepted into the Johns Hopkins Medical Center.

Weapons