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Films

Se7en

Terri Murray responds to a shocking film in a shocking way, with the help of Lewis Rose.

Spoiler alert: this review reveals the end of the film.

When the film Se7en [‘Seven’] was released in 1995 I reluctantly went to see it with a date, not because I thought it was remotely interesting, but because I thought my date might be, despite her poor taste in films. I left the cinema feeling irritated by the film’s sexual violence, which seemed to reach new heights of obscenity, barely rendered meaningful by the novelty of a psychopath obsessed by the seven deadly sins (the premise of the film involves a serial killer executing murders according to the motifs of sloth, pride, gluttony, jealousy, avarice, lust and wrath). To me, Se7en was just another Kevin Spacey vehicle with no point to make other than that some large amorphous group of misogynistic viewers are easily titillated by brazen depravity.

I am deeply indebted to my film studies student Lewis Rose, whose insights into Se7en’s characters made the scales fall from my eyes.

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