Enjoy another bite with the best Hannibal Lecter

Above : A 30th-anniversary screening of “The Silence of the Lambs” will happen on Sunday and Wednesday. (Photo/Orion Pictures)

If you had to rank your favorite scary movie characters, who would sit at the top of your list? Frankenstein? Michael Myers? Freddy Krueger? Annie Wilkes ?

For me, the answer is simple: Hannibal Lecter.

As played by Anthony Hopkins in 1991’s “The Silence of the Lambs,” that is. Brian Cox was effective as Lecter in “Manhunter,” Michael Mann’s 1986 adaptation of Thomas Harris’ novel “Red Dragon. Gaspard Ulliel played him in the 2007 prequel “Hannibal Rising.” And Mads Mikkelsen was fine as the character for three seasons in the 2013-15 television series “Hannibal.”

Not one of them, though, was quite as disarmingly chilly as Hopkins, whose dead-eyed stare and delivery of the line “A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti” still ranks as one of the most effective in horror-movie history.

We’ll all get a couple of chances to re-experience Hopkins’ performance, as well as those put in by Jodie Foster, Scott Glenn, Anthony Heald and especially Ted Levine (as the serial killer Buffalo Bill), on the big screen this coming Sunday and the following Wednesday.

“The Silence of the Lambs,” as directed by the late Jonathan Demme, will play in a special 30th-anniversary showing at the Regal Cinemas theaters at Northtown Mall and Coeur d’Alene’s Riverstone Stadium. Sunday’s films times will be 3 and 7 p.m., Wednesday’s 7 p.m. only.

Achieving a 96 percent Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes , “The Silence of the Lambs” may have been most astutely described by Washington Post critic Rita Kempley :

“ ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ is delicious with foreboding, a masterly suspense thriller that toys with our anticipation like a well-fed cat,” Kempley wrote. “Adroitly directed by Jonathan Demme, it lurks about the exquisite edge of horror, before finally leaping into an unholy maw of bloody bones and self-awareness.

Note she used the adjective “delicious.” Appropriate, don’t you think, especially when applied to a dish of liver and fava beans – with or without the chianti?