“Hannibal Review: Why Highbrow Horror Is Trending”

by Ashley Schellhous

Will Graham (Hugh Dancy), an FBI criminal profiler gifted with the ability to empathize

with horrifying acts of violence and cruelty, forms a complicated friendship with Hannibal

Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen), renowned psychiatrist and covert cannibal. As Hannibal treats Will for

trauma and Will investigates Hannibal’s victims, suspicions arise and lines of power are blurred.

Manipulation becomes the driving force of their tense relationship as they push each other to

their limits.

Hannibal challenges what we’ve come to expect from our media, raising our expectations

for everything else we watch. It embodies television’s shift from lowbrow to highbrow art. Each

episode is treated like a film, exploring cerebral themes with a slow, dialogue-driven form and

careful cinematography while subverting many of the genre’s tropes and clichés.

Hannibal is a wise choice for those who are interested in horror but wary of the gore that

is usually synonymous with the genre. Admittedly, the gore we do see is brutal. The violence and

evil explored by the show inevitably result in carnage. But Hannibal chooses to forego depicting

the actual acts, instead alluding with artistic paralleling scenes then settling on the aftermath.

Even the aftermath we witness is presented with an air of deference, never gratuity. The show

makes a point of presenting these crime scenes like art works, juxtaposing violence and beauty to

force you to consider the proposed correlation.

The horror of Hannibal, subdued in its tasteful depiction of gore, burgeons in its themes.

What are we capable of? What can we be made to do without knowing we’re being made to do

it? Where do we draw the line between human and monster? Character development carries these
themes through painstaking delineation. Extreme detail orientation allows us to pause and

ruminate on each step in the process as the characters move deeper and deeper into the gray areas

of morality and compulsion. Willing to raise questions most others are afraid to tackle, Hannibal

refuses to gloss over any of the more difficult implications of such questions. Once broached,

each unspeakable curiosity will be followed through to its grim end.

The cinematographic style allows the time necessary to digest the heavy discourse. Shots

are drowsy and deliberate, often lingering upon close-ups and symbolic imagery, the frame

moving with a slow-building intensity toward and away from subjects like a lurid dream. The

themes rely heavily on imagery and symbolism: dark animal figures wandering in and out of

scenes, art and music appearing alongside violence, wintery wooded landscape sprawling in the

background. A few select images are chosen as extended metaphors, appearing throughout

multiple seasons, evolving alongside the characters and themes they represent.

Hannibal is the meeting point of horror and art. It defines the underdeveloped niche of

highbrow horror with its innovative fusing of inter-genre elements. It’s an apt peek into the

horror genre for those who are more suited for drama. However, those looking for a more

traditional horror story with simpler plot and quicker pace may not find their needs met in

Hannibal. If you do find yourself drawn into its complex labyrinth, we recommend also adding

The Fall, The Killing, or Dexter to your watchlist.