Foster is superb as Clarice Starling, an FBI beginner tasked with finding the elusive serial killer "Buffalo Bill," a maniac who brutally skins his victims.

With the help of psychopath Dr. Hannibal Lecter (played expertly by Hopkins), Clarice must lock minds with the her depraved new friend Lecter if she hopes to catch Buffalo Bill.

But Clarice will be entering the darkest recesses of her very soul; will she be able to emerge unscathed?

Will she be able to emerge at all?

Only the third film to ever sweep all the major Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Actor (as well as best Adapted Screenplay).

While its contemporary competition is admittedly weak, director Demme turned out an unusually smart horror film based on the original Thomas Harris novel.

The horror - alternately visceral, psychological, and symbolic - is extraordinary; the script so literate, it's down right Shakespearean.

A must for any collection.

Followed by Hannibal in 2001.

Fans of Harris' novel should also seek out 1986's Manhunter, an earlier film adaptation.)