The poster for The Silence of the Lambs places a human skull across the face of Buffalo Bill, the film’s central antagonist. The stark image links the film’s advertising to death and metamorphosis. The design is based on Salvador Dalí’s 1951 work The Metamorphosis of Death. Dalí’s composition joins a skull with a distorted human form, turning mortality into the dominant visual message. On the movie poster, the skull acts as a memento mori over Buffalo Bill’s portrait. That symbolism suits a thriller centered on a serial killer and the fear he creates. The skull has also made the poster one of the most recognizable images in film marketing.