Other mistake: When Dolarhyde is taking Reba to the zoo in his van, there is a shot of the road he is traveling on behind him. For the entire trip, he is driving on the wrong side of the road.
Other mistake: When Ralph Fiennes wakes up after sleeping with Emily Watson we see the elaborate tattoo work on his back. We also see the blue overspray from the outside of the stencils used to create the tattoo.
Other mistake: Looking at a close-up of Ralph Fiennes make-up for his cleft lip/palate, there is a scar from his left lip to his left nostril, but there is a gap in the middle, which should definitely not be there. Once an incision is made, that's it, there is no reason to stop in the middle. In other shots of his face there are no gaps.
Other mistake: When Graham is about to pull out the top video case shelf at the Leeds' home, you can see the movie "Jaws" on the second shelf. "Jaws" didn't come out on home video until 1991.
Other mistake: When Graham and the police are headed to Dolarhyde's house (after visiting Chromalux), you can see a billboard as the police car squeals around a corner. It's an H&R Block billboard saying: "It's your refund. Get it faster." Didn't this slogan just come out a couple of years ago?
Answer: His choices had to do with the layout of peoples' property. At his job, he studied customers' family video tapes that contained scenes of their homes and yards. He looked for seclusion around the properties, easy-access back entrances, whether there was a family dog that would bark, and so on.
raywest ★
But what was his reason for killing them? Was it because he saw a happy family and he was angry because he never had one or because he saw a life that he would never have?
He chose the houses that had big backyards. During the Edward Norton/Lecter interaction, Lector says something about how blood looks in the moonlight.