A masterpiece of mid-90s thrillers directed by the always stylish David Fincher. Everything Wrong With (yes it exists but they’re pretty awesome about it and remove sins).
Veteran detective Somerset is due for retirement when he is partnered with the newly reassigned Detective Mills, who has moved to the city with his wife, Tracy. After being called to a couple of crime scenes, the pair soon realise that they are dealing with a serial killer who is using the seven deadly sins to torture and murder his victims.
Why is this in my top 10 movies of all time you ask? Well, here we go… This may take a while…. And I’m going to do it without spoiling the ending.
First of all, the movie looks incredible. It rains constantly (which I’m a big fan of), it’s dark and grimy, and it’s an unnamed city that looks like New York with its city scapes and tall compact buildings. But then what else would you expect from a Fincher flick? Even Gone Girl looks amazing, and that movie is mainly plot driven that seems to really favour substance.
Still on the subject of visuals, someone actually made an elaborate journal which was only shown on screen for a few seconds. This movie has so much detail.
The opening scene was also pretty incredible to look at. It just sets the tone for the whole movie with its dark visuals and psychological format. And this follows the introduction of its two main characters to not only the audience but to each other.
The final point about the style is the end credits. The text rolls down instead of the traditional up, which I remember weirded me out the first few times I watched it. It looks surreal, which suits the movie. That’s it, I’ve covered everything I want to about the visuals.
Morgan Freeman is the delight we all know him to be. You expect him to be the slightly gruff straight man, but he’s actually not. Of course he’s going to be intelligent since he’s nearly retired and can’t have gotten that far without being at least a little bit clever. They really hammer it home though with his chess and library scenes, but it also shows his isolation and loneliness by having him doing these things alone. I would also love to mention that you get to see him laugh in this movie, like a proper real laugh. It’s awesome.
This is my favourite Brad Pitt performance. Probably because he’s funny, a bit of a dick, and yet insanely likeable. The thing about these characters is that they are so realistic and relatable in some sense. Even just scenes where they are sitting around talking or looking at evidence, they look really casual, like policing is really their job.
The conversations feel incredibly natural as well. You can believe that they all get along. There’s a moment where Mills is just spinning around on his chair at his desk, for what reason, well why not? He’s also constantly leaning back in almost every chair he sits in. He’s a casual kind of guy.
The kills and victims are executed in a smart and creative way. It actually reminds me something that would be included in an episode of Lucifer (which I’ve been watching a lot of recently), only with more graphic violence and swearing. The biblical motives that drives the killer to pick the victims and killing them in a way that is relevant to their sin was at the time pretty unique. Actually I think Lucifer did an episode where someone was killing people in an ironic to their negative traits/profession kind of way.
The gluttony victim, an obese shut in, was fed to death.
The greed victim, a defence attorney, was killed after being forced to cut off a pound of his own flesh (which I’m sure they did in a Saw film as well).
The sloth victim, a drug dealing paedophile, is found barely alive strapped to a bed at his apartment after having been kept there for a year. This is one of the most memorable scenes in the movie.
The lust victim, a prostitute, is… well… mutilated in a very nasty fashion, which I don’t want to go into detail about, or show.
The pride victim, a model, has her face mutilated and is given the choice to call for help, which will leave her permanently scarred and disfigured, or to commit suicide by overdosing on pills. She picks the latter.
The last two I’m not going to spoil since it’s part of the ending. Spoiler free remember.
The movie is a stylish and compelling look into a dirty, decaying city and a true cinematic masterpiece. Fincher really knows what he’s doing. The performances are some of the best I’ve seen in a film, and the character interactions are just fascinating to watch. The relationship between the two leads is one of the reasons why the movie works so well as they seem to bond almost immediately.
I’m not only going to recommend this movie, but try watching it alongside Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train. Or you can double bill it with Fight Club.
Where to watch: Justwatch
Linsey Loves Horror 