It doesn't get much more influential than this...

Rating: 8/10 (13 March 2012)

Two very different films about serial killers ruled Hollywood in the 1990s: 1991's SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, featuring Anthony Hopkins as the infamous Hannibal 'the Cannibal' Lecter, and this, David Fincher's masterpiece about a pair of New York cops tackling a perverted killer inspired by the seven deadly sins. SE7EN is an extremely stylish film that ended up inspiring dozens of copycats like RESURRECTION and THE BONE COLLECTOR: all of the films share a gritty-grimy style with depictions of unflinching violence, seedy backdrops and sleazy characters.
Whichever way you look at it, SE7EN is a great movie. It has a pair of sterling performances from relative newcomers Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman, playing stock clichÃ©d characters: the young rookie and the older, wiser cop on the verge of retirement. Both Pitt and Freeman overcome their characters' conventions to make them believable people. Their quarry is Kevin Spacey, giving one of his traditionally disturbed portrayals as a sociopath with no inklings of good or evil. Much of the film is made up of police procedural elements, with the investigation of crime scenes, the following of leads and at least one fantastic chase sequence halfway through in which Fincher's direction is top notch. It's also blessed with a gruesomely dark twist ending which stays in your head forever afterwards.
For what it's worth, I'd pick SE7EN over SILENCE every time.