Seven (BFI Modern Classics)
by NA NA, Richard Dyer
Category: Performing Arts

Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Lust, Pride, Envy, Wrath. A serial killer on a warped mission who turns his victims' "sins" into the means of their murder. "Seven" (1995) is one of the most acclaimed American films of the 1990s. Starring Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt, and Kevin Spacey, "Seven" is the darkest of films. In it performance, cinematography, sound, and plot combine to create a harrowing account of a world beset by an all-encompassing, irremediable wickedness. Richard Dyer explores in turn the questions of sin, story, structure, seriality, sound, sight and salvation, analyzing how "Seven" both epitomizes and modifies the serial killer genre that is such a feature of recent cinema.