one of the best ever

Rating: 10/10 (4 October 2001)

** WARNING SOME SPOILERS AHEAD**
All-original serial killer movie with so much twists as a rollercoaster ride, the most remarkable thing about of this movie is being an absolute work of genius from such a young and unexperienced director. Using all the old formulas, using all the old paces, using all the old actor's tecniques, the movie reinvents a world of cinema, and establishes an example. John Mills, a young homicide detective, is a newcomer to the city where the veteran Williams Somerset has worked for years. Mills is retiring, and he will be substitued by Mills. Somerset agrees with Mills sticking around him for a week, seven days, during which he will supposedly give some tips of the trade to the Mills. Turns out, this week is also the week when a scarily methodical serial killer purges his obsession. As Mills and Somerset investigate the death of a titanically obese man, everything leads to the conclusion that it was a homicide. When a famous lawyer is killed and the word "Greed" is written with his blood, they fear the worst. When they find the word "Gluttony" written with grease at the obese man's death site, the worst is confirmed: there is a killer which acts according to the seven deadly sins. This will be the ultimate test to both an experienced man and a rookie youngster. And they will find out that everything they think they can foresee is actually wrong. They will find out that the man they are following is actually controlling them. Making history, the movie relies on quasi-expressionist ways to transmit an entire mood: the weather never changing, contributing to a depressed view of a depressing world. The violence comes never from actions, but from the pictures, the shots are almost fixed, the time is never rushed, and the movie never gives up on itself, constructing, inventing, inovating, thrilling and scaring. This is not a light-hearted experience. This is an experience in the whole sense of the word. This movie is an unique oeuvre, and will stand the test of time by the way it is inimitable. A test of a director's talent, and a true cult movie which demands multiple viewings.