Hopkins' familiar face brings chills to 'Silence of the Lambs' prequel 'Red Dragon'

At a private dinner party, an elegant matron wonders what's in the entree. Her host, Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), his hair skinned back into a creepy little ponytail, grins wickedly. "If I tell you," he murmurs, in that oddly slurred, faintly Southern accent, "I'm afraid you won't even try it."

Yes, Hannibal the Cannibal is back, and this darkly funny early scene in "Red Dragon" is one of the few that deviates from the Thomas Harris source novel. Adapted by Ted Tally (screenwriter of "The Silence of the Lambs," to which this film is a prequel), "Red Dragon" is a meticulous, handsomely filmed and thoroughly bloody version of the book, made with high standards but few surprises. (It's wise to have read the book beforehand, the better to turn your head before the nastiest bits.)

After an opening musical joke — this waking nightmare begins with "A Midsummer Night's Dream" — the horror begins. Former FBI investigator Will Graham (Edward Norton), scarred physically and emotionally from his previous encounter with Lecter, is called back into service to help catch a Lecter-like killer who has slaughtered two families.

Soon, Graham's sitting outside the stone cell of Dr. Lecter (in the same folding chair Clarice Starling would later occupy). And he's quickly caught up in the dangerous mind games Lecter — and the uncaught killer — like to play.

Director Brett Ratner has assembled a first-rate cast (Ralph Fiennes, in particular, snarls effectively as the killer; he's like a junior, more aristocratic-looking Lecter, standing with that same oddly erect posture). And Dante Spinotti, cinematographer for "Manhunter" (Michael Mann's fine 1986 version of the same novel), contributes some eerily beautiful moments — one scene, of Fiennes peering through a window, has a cloudy sheen to it, as if shot through watery milk.

Comparisons to "Manhunter" are inevitable: "Red Dragon" gives far more screen time to Lecter (in "Manhunter," Brian Cox got barely 10 minutes), looks more costly and is somewhat more gruesome in its crime-scene depictions. William Petersen as Graham had a more haunted quality, but Norton has some fine moments. Neither, though, quite has the chemistry with Lecter that Jodie Foster's brave Starling had.

Ultimately, "Red Dragon" is all about the cannibal, and Hopkins, with his unblinking stare and gracious manner, slips into the role like a favorite cardigan. He's getting awfully comfortable as Lecter, and perhaps we are, too (some parents, astonishingly, brought grade-school-age children to the preview screening). This prequel ends exactly as it should — with a shivery little lead-in to "The Silence of the Lambs" — and there we leave Lecter, his body caged and his mind wandering. He may no longer surprise, but the icy eyes still chill.

Moira Macdonald: 206-464-2725 or mmacdonald@seattletimes.com.