[2] Evan Sawdey of PopMatters wrote that "Goodbye Horses" has a "strangely entrancing thump" and "sad, tragicomic elements" in the lyrics, describing it as "quirky".
[2] One day, in 1985, she picked up director Jonathan Demme and producer Arthur Baker in her taxi during a blizzard after the two finished doing the final mix on Little Steven's music video for his song "Sun City".
After dropping off Baker, Q Lazzarus asked Demme if he was in the music business, then proceeded to play her demo tape, which included "Goodbye Horses".
[3] In the scene, the film's antagonist, serial killer Buffalo Bill (portrayed by Ted Levine) puts on makeup in the mirror and plays with his nipple ring while his victim, Catherine Martin (Brooke Smith), attempts to escape from a deep pit.
I'd fuck me so hard", and then begins dancing naked into a video camera with his penis and testicles tucked between his legs as Catherine cries in the background.
[19][16] It was originally rehearsed to Bob Seger's 1980 song "Her Strut", but "Goodbye Horses" was eventually chosen, with Levine saying that it became "a little gentler", "stranger", and "more feminine" as a result.
[20] Lauren Down wrote for Under the Radar that it was "nigh on impossible" to separate "Goodbye Horses" from the film's scene, remarking they become "inextricable" once "he [Buffalo Bill] steps backwards in self-admiration".
[20] For The New York Times, Joe Coscarelli wrote that "Goodbye Horses" "adds an extra layer of eeriness" to what many consider the "indelible shot" of The Silence of the Lambs.
In 2013, American rock band the Delta Mirror included a cover of the song on their 2013 album Better Unsung, which the staff of Entertainment Weekly described as "appropriately Ian Curtis-y" and Zach Kelly from Pitchfork viewed as "more than a little silly".
[2][41][42] A 25th anniversary re-release of the single, issued by Mon Amie Records in 2013, included a B-side of a minimalist cover of the song by Hayden Thorpe and Jon Hopkins.