William Peterson is a traumatized FBI agent drawn back to duty by his colleague, Dennis Farina, to track down a serial killer, named "the tooth fairy" for his habit of removing his victims' teeth, played by William Noonan. Brian Cox is Hannibal Lecktor, who remains safely locked away and plays a minor part in the hunt. Joan Allen is a blind woman taken captive by Noonan and saved from slashing at the last moment.
It precedes "The Silence of the Lambs," by the same author, William Harris, but is independent and not quite so commercial. I GUESS it wasn't as commercial anyway, since it didn't receive nearly the media attention that "Silence of the Lambs" did.
I'm not sure why. Maybe because it didn't have Jody Foster in the lead, and lacked Anthony Hopkins' touches as Horrible Hannibal. But William Noonan brings his own kind of menace to the role of the tooth fairy. Noonan is a strange-looking guy. The character is supposed to be seven feet tall and he's shot in such a way as to make the claim convincing. He's balding and dolichocephalic and always speaks in a direct, matter-of-fact mid-American voice. He's far more ambiguous a character than Hopkins, to whom I'm comparing him because he and Hopkins are the chief villains in each film. Noonan can feel human emotions. He sensitive. He meets the blind photographer, Joan Allen, and is attracted to her, so he takes her to a veterinarian friend and lets her feel the fur and the fangs of a giant narcotized tiger. Well, that's quite a thrill for her, so she seduces him. Can you imagine Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lector being seduced? It's only later, when Noonan comes to believe that Allen has betrayed him, that his cool rage emerges.
Tightly directed, except for a couple of action-scene clichés that appear in slow motion. The image of a red dragon has cropped up now and again during the film, and when Noonan's bullet-riddled body is spread eagled on the floor, the blood spreads out from his torso like dragon wings. The photography is uninviting -- not that it's inappropriate -- with all the lights apparently being fluorescent. Or, if they happen to be blue or pink, they seem to be coming from neon signs. It's summer but the entire film seems to be filled with chill.
There are some gruesome scenes that might disturb some people, though maybe not much more exuberantly horrifying than some of those in "Silence of the Lambs." Okay, so there's a man strapped in a wheel chair, set on fire, and rolled down the ramp of a parking lot into the camera with flame streaming behind him. True, it's worse than what my dentist does to me, but it's no more shocking than what Richard Widmark did with a wheelchair in "Kiss of Death."
It precedes "The Silence of the Lambs," by the same author, William Harris, but is independent and not quite so commercial. I GUESS it wasn't as commercial anyway, since it didn't receive nearly the media attention that "Silence of the Lambs" did.
I'm not sure why. Maybe because it didn't have Jody Foster in the lead, and lacked Anthony Hopkins' touches as Horrible Hannibal. But William Noonan brings his own kind of menace to the role of the tooth fairy. Noonan is a strange-looking guy. The character is supposed to be seven feet tall and he's shot in such a way as to make the claim convincing. He's balding and dolichocephalic and always speaks in a direct, matter-of-fact mid-American voice. He's far more ambiguous a character than Hopkins, to whom I'm comparing him because he and Hopkins are the chief villains in each film. Noonan can feel human emotions. He sensitive. He meets the blind photographer, Joan Allen, and is attracted to her, so he takes her to a veterinarian friend and lets her feel the fur and the fangs of a giant narcotized tiger. Well, that's quite a thrill for her, so she seduces him. Can you imagine Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lector being seduced? It's only later, when Noonan comes to believe that Allen has betrayed him, that his cool rage emerges.
Tightly directed, except for a couple of action-scene clichés that appear in slow motion. The image of a red dragon has cropped up now and again during the film, and when Noonan's bullet-riddled body is spread eagled on the floor, the blood spreads out from his torso like dragon wings. The photography is uninviting -- not that it's inappropriate -- with all the lights apparently being fluorescent. Or, if they happen to be blue or pink, they seem to be coming from neon signs. It's summer but the entire film seems to be filled with chill.
There are some gruesome scenes that might disturb some people, though maybe not much more exuberantly horrifying than some of those in "Silence of the Lambs." Okay, so there's a man strapped in a wheel chair, set on fire, and rolled down the ramp of a parking lot into the camera with flame streaming behind him. True, it's worse than what my dentist does to me, but it's no more shocking than what Richard Widmark did with a wheelchair in "Kiss of Death."