Se7en Analysis Essay

Se7en Analysis

The film se7en is about two detectives on the hunt for a serial killer whose victims are attacked based on the seven deadly sins. ‘Pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth.’  He makes a book for each.

During the opening title sequence we are shown the killers murder diaries. As gloomy as it is they have allowed the creator of the scene to fill the clip with different texture. The books have ratty pages and the ink seeps. The director has also been quite clever to shine light through different pages so that we are able to see what is on the other side. As they are full of dark pictures of the victims and scribbled diagrams and mad thoughts. Defacing picture of a boy, starting with the eyes, might indicate personal issues from childhood or simply represent the violence of the character. While less graphic than say the images of instruments of torture shown in the sequence, there’s something more sinister about the act of crossing out the boy’s eyes. The act takes away something fundamental about our sight that connects us, so the metaphorical removal of the eyes is like locking the figure in, imprisoning. This may be the character showing is jealousy without meaning to. He may not mean to show that he cares but in fact taking the effort to target someone shows that he feels an emotion. Have it be anger or hatred. We never see his face. This could be because we are meant to feel like we are the character, or we are being shown by the character what great accomplishments he has been making.

As a whole it gives us a schizophrenic experience from the murders mind. There are electronic fragments of sound and extremely short close ups of the

Killers hands. Occasionally hand written text overlaps the filmed footage. Broken and it looks as if it was not meant to be seen. Like the murder could not help but blurt it out. It feels like it is on a different layer and if it’s from the characters mind makes me think that he sees in more than one dimension. Instead of hearing voices he may see them. Instead of seeing colors for example he may feel them. He may have Synaesthesia. Lots of people would like to experience this as it is the unknown to the majority, but this may eventually send someone insane and the confusion may lead them to do strange.

After all of this I think that the character is quite contradictive to himself. Two of the seven deadly sins are pride and anger. To create something so detailed filled with things in different media takes a long time. To not feel proud of what you have made at the end is impossible. He feels anger towards the victims as they are committing the sins. Which in fact means when he gets to anger he is committing it himself. I would also include envy. He may feel this way towards the little boy who’s eyes he crosses out. But I think at the end of the crimes he commits he feels to smug to feel envious. Before he may have but in an act of anger it is taken away and replaced with pride.