Se7en (1995)
Directed by David Fincher
Two homicide detectives are on a desperate hunt for a serial killer whose crimes are based on the "seven deadly sins" in this dark and haunting film that takes viewers from the tortured remains of one victim to the next. The seasoned Det. Somerset researches each sin in an effort to get inside the killer's mind, while his novice partner, Mills, scoffs at his efforts to unravel the case.
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Be warned that the picture contains enough horrific details to make it a worthy successor to ''The Silence of the Lambs,'' which inspired it.
The deviant psychology here is really Mickey Mouse stuff compared with anything in The Silence of the Lambs or its brilliant prequel, Manhunter.
While the 1980s were all about the cinematic mass murderer as a mute, emotionless entity, the 1990s were a good time to peddle screenplays about high-IQ serial killers: The Silence of the Lambs started the decade by becoming one of the few thrillers to ever receive a Best Picture Oscar.
SE7EN ranks with “The Silence of the Lambs” as one of the best thrillers of the ’90s.
Seven has moments as chilling and forceful as anything in The Silence of the Lambs.
Howard ("The Silence of the Lambs") Shore's score is memorably insistent, forever prodding you with anxiety.
The detectives are trying to solve a series of hideous murders based on the seven deadly sins, and the sheer foulness and decay of the nameless city that surrounds them, which makes those of Taxi Driver and Blade Runner seem almost like children's theme parks, conjures up a metaphysical mood that isn't broken even when the film moves to the countryside for its climax.
John Doe might be a psycho killer but, like Travis Bickle in “Taxi Driver”, one can identify with his disgust at the filth running through the streets.
If we're not as well-read as bookworm Somerset--who scours through "The Canterbury Tales" and Dante's "Divine Comedy" as the plot thickens--the killer thoughtfully leaves clues to the seven sins scrawled in blood on the walls.
Dark, dreary and tense, the film is relentlessly freaky and absorbing right from the opening moments when a remix of Trent Reznor's "Closer to God" is set to the opening credits (which eerily mirror the opening credits of Wes Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street ).
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It's a sequence that has drawn comparisons to the grotesque photography of Joel-Peter Whitkin and the experimental self-aware filmmaking of Stan Brakhage, and its format has been likened to Stephen Frankfurt's title design for Robert Mulligan's 1963 adaptation of the courtroom thriller To Kill a Mockingbird , which also features close-up photography of personal items to describe the psyche of one of the film's key players.
As with Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho and its legendary shower scene, audiences believed they were shown more than they were.
Like the John Malkovich freak in "In the Line of Fire," this mad genius is essentially a fun-house mirror image of the film's hero.
I can't help but think that if unknowns were cast in the principal roles we'd be seeing something almost as disturbing as John McNaughton's seminal Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer but, I suppose, that's Hollywood.
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They're obviously intended to approximate the appeal of the "Lethal Weapon" team of Danny Glover and Mel Gibson--and they do.
The deviant psychology here is really Mickey Mouse stuff compared with anything in The Silence of the Lambs or its brilliant prequel, Manhunter.
It introduced into the mainstream thriller the FBI techniques of ‘profiling’, creating what would become a sub-genre: the serial killer investigation later mined successfully by filmmakers as diverse as David Fincher ( Se7en , Zodiac ), Bong Joon-ho ( Memories of Murder ) and, obviously, Jonathan Demme ( The Silence of the Lambs ).