Soundtrack Analysis- 'The Scilence of the Lambs'.

Silence of the Lambs (1990) is regarded as one of the best psychological thrillers ever made. It won Oscars for Actor, Actress and Best Film.

The Opening

The music makes the audience feel that something bad was going to happen, but nothing actually did. It built the eerie tension up.
We see a character running through a wood on an assault course. The music from the start is an eerie piece of classical music which is immediately unsettling. In fact we are waiting for something to happen. The character's face does not look scared, and we soon see why she is running as we see her climb a rope web. The music makes us predict something in the visuals.

Our opening does not have tense music, but calm and relaxed piano music playing, as Anna is running to her 'sanctuary'. As our film is unconventional and as an opening, it is quite busy with the voice over as the narrative which means that the audience have to be constantly involved, although I feel that the filming sequence rather speaks for itself and the audience can tell what is going on.

The Interview

The soundtrack plays as she walks towards Hannibal Lecter. It is used to unsettle the audience without going to its full tempo.

The Escape Scene

The scene opens with diagetic classical music playing. This suggests a peaceful scene, however we soon see that the scene is very horrific and violent where the cut joins two different sounds together. After the violence has ended, the classical music starts again. The high tempo soundtrack creates immediate anxiety and tension. The pattern I noticed in the music was that the music went from diegetic to non- diegetic to diegetic again which meant that classical music, while usually it is used to heighten peace, was used in this scene to overall heighten the horror of the fact that Hannibal Lecter's heart rate does not raise higher than 85 when he kills, and he is fully capable of listening to classical music calmly before and after killing.

Our film can be linked to 'Silence of the Lambs' because we used a somber piano piece as our soundtrack, even when it came to the tension in the wardrobe when Zoe reaches out towards Anna and at this point, the music does change slightly, but it is still piano throughout, whilst 'The Silence of the Lambs' had the difference of its own soundtrack as well as the piano music which Hannibal Lecter is listening to.

'Buffalo Bill' is killed

As Clarice staggers around in the darkness the soundtrack builds again to a Crescendo until she shoots him and then it dies down. The audience is familiar with the soundtrack from its use of key moments in the film. It is very loud which can be draining.

We made sure that our voice over was louder than the music so that the narrative could be heard, and the music would not over drain the audience.