Horror Film Fest: Se7en

It’s Monday night in the week long Halloween Horror Film Fest, and tonight’s scary movie is Se7en. The film stars Morgan Freeman as an experienced homicide detective who is about to retire, and Brad Pitt as his young replacement. Their jobs are to overlap for seven days, during which Freeman will show Pitt the rope. Kevin Spacey plays the psycho who will make it a disturbing seven days, and Gwyneth Paltrow as Pitt’s wife.

The shocking truth is, I fell asleep about halfway through. I just can’t stay up as late as I used too. But hey, I’ve seen the movie before so I can review it anyway.

So what does this scary killer do? He is making examples of people he finds guilty of breaking one of the seven deadly sins, and always in a manner suited to the sin. Victim by victim, a new grusome death illustrates another sin; gluttony, greed, sloth, lust, pride, envy, and finally in a real twist, wrath.

Unlike your typical psycho-killer horror movie, where the killer is endowed with some sort of super-natural power that keeps them coming back (Michael Myers, Jason, Freddy, etc…), the scenario in Se7en is even scarier, because it’s more believable. Like Dr. Lecter and Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs, or Kathy Bates in Misery, this killer is so scary because he’s so human. A seriously screwed in the head human, and not a supernatural monster. When this movie is over, you have to deal with the fact that people this messed up really exist in the world.

If you’re watching the DVD, be sure to check out the special features, especially the storyboards of an alternate ending that I think might have been even better than the excellent one in the movie. Regardless, this is a first-rate suspense movie and Casey gives it two thumbs, WAY up.

further reading: The Seven Deadly Sins on Wikipedia