The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

If you can believe it, this won all 5 major Academy awards, Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.  And it deserved them all.

Strong female lead - check.  Strong villian - best ever!  Suspenseful.  Uncertain mystery.  Fine direction - Jonathan Demme.  Just the right amount of gore.  Even 20 years later when a lot of the movie scenes have become iconic, it still has a lot of power.

Excellent  * * * * *

I plan to read the book.  Be sure to watch Manhunter and Red Dragon which were prequels but basically tell a very similar story.