When you think about horror and romance, it’s easy to see them as two contrasting genres. But look at media like Bram Stoker’s Dracula or Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak to see how romance can add a frightening, even melancholic, element to a scary story, making it all the more memorable. Both movies show how love can turn us into monsters, but another horror classic perfected the same metaphor—and it’s free to stream on Pluto TV.
Why you should watch Hannibal
Hannibal premiered in 2013 on NBC. Drawing direct inspiration from Thomas Harris’s splatterfest Hannibal Lecter novels, the series was brought to life by Bryan Fuller, the macabre mind behind Pushing Daisies and Dead Like Me. It follows disturbed but vulnerable FBI profiler Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) who, after being roped into helping the FBI solve “unsolvable” cases by the head of the Behavioral Science Unit, Jack Crawford (Laurence Fishburne), forms an unsettling bond with forensic psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen).
Although Hannibal features characters from Harris’s novels, the first two seasons feel more like a loosely inspired crime procedural than a direct adaptation of the books, with Will and Hannibal teaming up to uncover the identity of the Chesapeake Ripper, a cannibal who displays his victims in elaborate ways. (Spoiler: Hannibal is that cannibal.) Though the series’ procedural format may not appeal to fans seeking an adaptation that reflects Harris’s work, it unintentionally serves as a fantastic way to explore the early cat-and-mouse stage of Will and Hannibal’s relationship. By day, the two hunt killers together; by night, they hunt each other.
But what starts as two very intelligent men pitting their minds and wits against one another soon transforms into something intoxicating and compelling — a twisted sense of love. Hannibal has killed and dined on his victims for years while remaining relatively unnoticed by his circle of friends, Jack Crawford and Alana Bloom (Caroline Dhavernas). When Will turns up aloof but vulnerable, fearing he’s as bad as the criminals he pursues, Hannibal sees a potential partner, even if that means breaking Will down mentally first. What a romantic.
However, it’d be a mistake to assume Will remains a victim in Hannibal’s toxic love game. As Hannibal’s true self comes to light, Fuller’s masterful direction, which frames the two men as mirrors of one another, reveals how deeply both Will and Hannibal are unable to fully separate, despite how often they’ve hurt one another. It’s a relationship you’d run for the hills to escape from in real life. By the time Hannibal’s third and final season arrives, Will’s attempts to deny his complex bond with Hannibal (“I wanted to run away with him,” Will confesses to Jack Crawford in season 3 episode “Aperitivo”) ultimately end up hurting the people he’s sworn to protect, namely his wife, Molly (Nina Arianda), and her son.
Yet what makes Will and Hannibal’s relationship so compelling is that nothing ever comes easily to either of them. Hannibal wants Will close, so he gives himself up to the FBI to be near him. Will can’t bear that Hannibal is the first person to make him feel truly seen, so he runs away to a life that doesn’t satisfy him. They’re so blinded by their connection that even if Will and Hannibal deny it to themselves, the other characters around them call them out on it. Sensationalist journalist Freddie Lounds (Lara Jean Chorostecki) dubs them “Murder Husbands,” and wily Dr. Bedelia Du Maurier (Gillian Anderson) confirms to Will that Hannibal is in love with him. Even the relationship between Margot Verger (Katherine Isabelle) and Alana Bloom is meant to reflect Will and Hannibal’s relationship, as seen by that weirdly wonderful kaleidoscope sex scene in season three.
The two men may not kiss — something Fuller admits he regrets leaving out of the finale — but there is nothing subtextual about Will and Hannibal’s relationship. They are undoubtedly the heart of the show and easily one of the most daring gothic love stories we’ve ever seen in horror TV.