- "A Census Taker Once Tried To Test Me. I Ate His Liver With Some Fava Beans And A Nice Chianti." - The Silence Of The Lambs (1991)
- "Do You Like Scary Movies?" - Scream (1996)
- "Do You Want To Play A Game?" - Saw (2004)
Here is an example of how performance can impact dialogue. Anthony Hopkins as the cannibal doctor, Hannibal Lecter, truly adds another level of creepiness with his chilling delivery of this line and the added slurping noise that Hopkins does afterward is just the cherry on top.
This quote makes Hannibal, as a character, so much more horrifying as it reveals the full extent of his crimes and his admitted cannibalism. He is a character who can't be trusted, but also wickedly intelligent and captivating with his words. Hopkins has plenty of great quotes from The Silence of the Lambs, but this is the most iconic.
Scream is a meta-horror slasher film from one of the masters of horror, director Wes Craven. The film makes lots of jabs at cliches and mistakes that characters make in famous slasher movies, like Halloween and A Nightmare on Elm Street.
This quote comes in at the opening sequence, where the Ghostface killer terrorizes Drew Barrymore's character over the phone. This freaky question sets up the killer's obsession with horror movies and how the film is going to not-so-subtly make fun of many elements seen in slasher films. It's a suspenseful scene that sets up a fun horror-thriller.
This quote is said throughout the Saw franchise and serves as the setup for each movie. A crazy serial killer named Jigsaw puts people through horrifying, gory games to see how far they will go in order to survive. Jigsaw and his haunting voice create a haunting image and sound that are hard to forget.
The Saw franchise has become such a success that it has spawned eight sequels with the latest installments, Jigsaw and Spiral, finding new and inventive ways to keep the series alive. Horror fans just can't get enough of Jigsaw and his sadistic games.