The Deadly Sins - Seven

The Deadly Sins - Seven

Seven is a horror thriller which may be disturbing for many people. The movie is situated in an unidentified city with constant rain. It tells the story of two detectives – one who is about to retire and the other who is at the beginning of his career. Initially unwilling to work together, they are forced to work together to catch a psychopath serial killer.

David Fincher succeeded in creating a horrible world in seven where he created a nameless and unidentifiable monster that is without any background and has no fingerprints. He remains faceless throughout the major part of the movie. The power of this movie lies with the villain. John Doe plans at creating a master piece by punishing the people for their sins. With the first three murders, his message starts to appear and the two detectives – David Mills (Brad Pitt) and William Somerset (Morgan Freeman), figure out the reason of all murders to be a planned sequence according to the seven deadly sins mentioned in Christianity. The mystery of the story/ movie lies in the fact that will the detectives be able to catch Doe before the completion of his so called master piece or will he be able to complete all seven murders and disappear as nobody can identify him and he can be every where and be any one. The film takes a turn when, unexpectedly, Doe surrenders at the police station and confesses his crime, but at this time he has only completed five murders and two are still remaining to complete the whole. What he has in mind about them is not known to any one except Doe himself.

Somerset (Morgan Freeman) is the more literary of the two detectives and he is the one who concludes that the killer is using his crimes to preach a sermon. He is calm and is aware of the situation and also knows how to deal with difficult situations. Mills is a hyper police man who gets angry very soon and indulges in a fight with any one. He hits back a photographer when he secretly tries to take his picture.  John Doe’s (Kevin Spacey) method of murder is planned and disgusting. The way he leaves the pride victim with and option to kill herself by taking an over dose of sleeping pills or call for help. He already knows that she will not call for help and commit suicide by eating sleeping pills. In the opening credits and the ads of the film the killer is not identified by name, it is deliberately done to leave his identity as a surprise for the viewers. He has played his role very well.

The film keeps the viewers involved in it and creates an environment of suspense and horror from the beginning. The way the murders were pre-planned and executed is amazing. With every victim, he kept the clue for the next one. He kept the sloth victim alive for a year and takes photographs for his different phases of decaying and even he kept his hand to leave a clue. He does not want to hide the murders or himself rather he wants to show it to the whole world. He does a detail study of all his victims and is aware of everything about their lives.

The lesson conveyed by the movie is that one should not go around killing others for their sins and also that one should have control on oneself and keep oneself away from sins. Every body has committed a sin but it is not on one person to decide the fate for the other. The law is there to punish the sinners. It also tells us about the Christian belief about the sinners and the punishments for them in hell and also gives reference to some great works of literature.

People above the age of 18 may watch the movie also people who have interest in literature and have a literary back ground will have a clear under standing of the movie. As the movie involves murder scenes, sensitive people should not watch it as some scenes are very disturbing. I would rate the movie 4 out of 5. It is very well made in its details, everything is linked to the other and nothing is out of place.