Se7en Review

Hi there,

I will be writing movie reviews on here, so I thought I would start by reviewing my personal favorite:  Se7en.  Released in 1995 and directed by David Fincher (Fight Club, Zodiac and Panic Room), Se7en is his darkest and most well rounded film.  It's one of those films that will stay with you for a long time, and get those wheels up in your head spinning about the values and condition of life today.  It's by no means a new film, so most of you have probably seen it or at least heard of it.  However, for those who haven't, or are curious to see it again, here is a summary of what you would be getting yourself into:

Se7en (that's how the movie is spelt) tells the story of Detective David Mills (Brad Pitt) and Detective William Somerset (Morgan Freeman), who are partnered up in an unnamed city to solve what appears to be a serial killing.  Detective Somerset is at least 30 years older than Mills, and is approaching retirement.  Detective Mills is relatively new on the force, and is hungry for action.  The two have personality differences, and opposing methods of going about their job, however a strange bond forms between them as they progress in their investigation.

The killer they are looking for is selecting victims seemingly at random, and writing one of the seven deadly sins on the wall of the crime scene for each of them.  The first clue left behind is a passage reading: "Long is the way and hard that out of hell leads up to light," a passage from the book Paradise Lost by John Milton.  Mills and Somerset begin reading excepts from Paradise Lost, as well as other books that may have inspired the killer, such as The Canterbury Tales and readings by Saint Thomas Aquinas.  With one clue leading to another, they find themselves getting closer to their target, but further into a world of darkness.

I don't want to go too much more into the story, because anymore information will spoil the story.  However, I will say the following things.  Se7en is a stand-out psychological thriller for many reasons, one being that you virtually never see any of the victims get killed.  The entire film is examining the scene afterwards, interviewing witnesses and hearing accounts of what happened.  While you are spared of seeing onscreen murders, do not let this fool you into thinking this is a tame movie.  Se7en is one of the darkest films you will see, with extreme and vivid detail in each crime scene.  It is most certainly not for anyone that is timid or nervous about intense films.  However, this is what makes the film truly great in its genre.

The mark of a great director of horror/thriller films is using the least amount of blood and gore as possible, and making the film effective.  I consider Se7en a relic of a bygone era where horror/thriller films were great.  Today, horror movies rely almost exclusively on blood and gore, which has diminished the talent of a horror director to almost nothing.  Se7en could have easily been another blood soaked thriller where you see everything happen and nothing is left to the imagination.  Instead, you are forced to imagine what happened by being exposed to only little snap shots of the murder, such as pictures of what weapons/devices were used, and listening to people describe the murders.  The setting of the city is constantly raining, and the locations are gritty, dark and slum like buildings/houses.  Every detail from the camera work, the wardrobe selections, the lighting and the music plays into the effectiveness of the film.  It captures your attention from the very beginning, and you will not be sorry that it did in the end.