Long before The Silence of the Lambs made Hannibal Lecter a household name, there was a little and mostly unseen film made called Manhunter, which is based on of the book Red Dragon by Thomas Harris and directed by Micheal Mann. Although not as true to the book as the remade Red Dragon, Manhunter is my favorite of the two films.

FBI agent Will Graham is hunting down a new serial killer on the loose nicked-named the Tooth Fairy. Graham, who has been retired for a few years and needs to get back in the mindset of the man whom he is tracking, so he visits his last capture.

Hannibal, is played by Bryan Cox who is not as chilling as Hopkins, but does a great job as the very cool Hannibal in this one. After catching up Lechter agrees to help Graham profile the Tooth Fairy in order to catch him before the next full moon.

The movie flows quite well you can feel the dread and tension and Tom Noonan is both creepy and sympathetic to a point. This film should have made William Peterson a bigger star, but that does not happen until years later when he plays almost the exact character on CSI. This film also has a great soundtrack which is as creepy as the movie itself.

8/10

I rented this movie on Prime's glowing recommendation, however, it may have been his recommendation that blew it for me. I had such high expectations, but ultimately I think Red Dragon was a much better execution of the story.

Gone from Manhunter was any semblance of developing Dollarhyde's character, no explanation as to why he was the monster he was, the absence of this development was a big strike in my book.

I won't drone on and on, but the 80's soundtrack was horrible, I'm glad the 80's are gone, and hope the music like this NEVER comes back. The acting was fair, I don't feel anyone brought their "A" game, and the final straw? The ending was absolutely regodamndiculous!

Give me Fiennes, Hopkins, and Norton any day!

May have been better if I'd seen it before Red Dragon but regretfully that wasn't the case.

4 out of 10 hairlipped freaks