During its opening weekend, Seven grossed $14 million across 2,441 theaters—an average of $5,714 per theater—making it the number-one film of the weekend, ahead of the debut of Showgirls ($8.1 million), and To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Fincher’s public image had also been tarnished by the failure of Alien 3, and although Freeman and Pitt were proven stars who were capable of attracting audiences, New Line Cinema struggled to capitalize on Pitt’s popularity. New Line Cinema had low expectations for Seven based on middling scores from test audiences. “Disquieting” sounds were added throughout the sequence at a low frequency, such as barking dogs and screams.
Seven’s city is presented as a blighted, decaying zone of unfettered criminality and vice, echoing a reactionary view of urban problems concerning segments of the contemporary American middle class. Film scholar Amy Taubin described the city as an infection point for corruption, in which signs of violence and decay are omnipresent in its dark corners, rain, television reports, fights, screams, and children in impoverished apartments. A seven-issue comic-book series was released between September 2006 and October 2007 by Zenescope Entertainment; serving as a prequel to the film’s events of the film, the comic book focuses on Doe and the planning of his crimes. A novelization of Seven that was written by Anthony Bruno was released alongside the film in November 1995. A theatrical re-release took place exclusively in IMAX theaters for one week only beginning January 3, 2025, followed by a 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray release on January 7, 2025 for the film’s 30th anniversary.
Title credits
In discussions with Michael De Luca, New Line Cinema’s president of production, both shared a preference for the original script. New Line Cinema sent Fincher an up-to-date draft in which Tracy survives but Fincher insisted on directing the original script. In a 2017 interview, Walker said he felt he was ruining his script and should have left the project. To lead the project, Penta Film hired director Jeremiah S. Chechik, known for his recent success directing the comedy film National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989) and seeking a more serious project. In the early 1990s, Italian company Penta Film it, under manager Phyllis Carlyle, optioned the script.
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Fincher wanted Mark Romanek to direct the sequence, being a fan of his music video for “Closer” and sharing similar design sensibilities, but Cooper secured the role because of his previous experience on similar title sequences. The sequence was well-received by executives, who suggested retaining it for the theatrical release. In the opening scene, Walker portrays a corpse lying in a pool of blood; he said the blood was very cold and he had a minor panic attack once in place because he was worried about moving and ruining the shot. For Schanz’s pride victim, Fincher added blood to her while her nose was taped to the side and her face was covered in gauze. Bottin’s team spent 11 days experimenting on the aesthetic and prosthetics for the sloth victim. For the gluttony victim, Mack spent up to 10 hours a day having makeup and prosthetics applied.
Gene Borkan was cast to play the greed victim because the filmmakers wanted someone who resembled lawyer Robert Shapiro. Doe’s scenes were initially filmed with an unknown actor portraying Doe; the filmmakers quickly decided to replace them and Pitt helped negotiate Spacey’s involvement. Michael Stipe, lead vocalist of rock band R.E.M., was considered but filming dates conflicted with the band’s tour. Fincher said that Tracy was important because she provides the film’s only tonally positive elements and he thought Paltrow’s previous performances demonstrated she could effectively convey this in Tracy’s limited screentime. However, after meeting Pitt, Fincher believed he was charismatic and likeable enough that he could keep the audience on Mills’s side regardless of the character’s actions. Pitt had established himself as an in-demand and highly-paid film star following successes with Interview with the Vampire (1994) and Legends of the Fall, but Fincher had not considered him to portray Mills because he felt Pitt did not fit the image he had for the character.
Somerset tries to create order using the ticking of a metronome to disguise the disordered noise of sirens and screams outside his apartment.ai Dyer wrote that Somerset’s smashing of the metronome signifies his acknowledgment of the city’s darkness. Thompson observes that Tracy, unlike Mills, possesses a more discerning perspective, having already concluded that the city holds no promising future for her family and expresses her desire to return to their home outside its borders. The narrative thus reinforces the notion that the city is trapped in a temporal loop, condemned to endlessly repeat cycles of sin and corruption without the prospect of liberation or escape. Professor Kirsten Thompson characterizes the city as devoid of temporal or spatial markers, with an absence of recognizable elements like street signs, costumes, or specific vehicles that could provide clues to its identity. The city’s bleak aesthetic implies a moral decay and indifference by its inhabitants that enables Doe’s plan, which can be considered akin to the sloth sin.ah
According to Walker, “there’s lots of evil out there, and you’re not always going to get the satisfaction of having any sort of understanding of why that is. That’s one of the things that scares people the most about serial killers”. He wanted to defy audience expectations, and leave them feeling “violated and exhausted” by the conclusion. In 1986, aspiring screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker moved from the suburbs of Pennsylvania to New York City, and described the culture shock of living in a city undergoing significant rises in crime and drug abuse.
A brilliant postmodern film noir that is grim, intelligent and disturbing
Seven is a 1995 American crime thriller film directed by David Fincher and written by Andrew Kevin Walker. Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. All of the pieces are in place, all of the characters are in position, and then – I think the way the story ends is too easy.
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Studio executives were opposed to the script’s bleak conclusion, insisting on a more mainstream and optimistic outcome. Walker, an aspiring writer, based Seven on his experiences of moving from a suburban setting to New York City during a period of rising crime and drug addiction in the late 1980s. Seven (often stylized as Se7en) is a 1995 American crime thriller film directed by David Fincher and written by Andrew Kevin Walker.
- The sequence focuses on Doe writing his journal and crossing out words such as “pregnancy”, “marriage”, and other elements representing a “perfect life”, which he does not believe people deserve.
- (The actor playing the killer is not identified by name in the ads or opening credits, and so I will leave his identity as another of his surprises.) “Seven” is well-made in its details, and uncompromising in the way it presents the disturbing details of the crimes.
- For the finale, he introduced more rapid cuts to emphasize the tension as Doe’s plan is revealed, and a brief, four-frame insert of Tracy as Mills pulls the trigger to compensate for not showing the contents of the box.
- Mills is ostensibly the hero and Doe the villain, but from Doe’s perspective his victims were not innocent, drawing justification from biblical precedent.
- Cooper regularly conferred with Wall on ideas, and spent the night before filming locating items such as fish hooks and loose hairs from his drain, which he believed would make interesting inclusions.
- Somerset does not believe the city can be saved, intending to retire beyond its confines, and tells Mills that women are taught to yell “fire” rather than “help” because people are more likely to pay attention if they selfishly think of themselves as in danger.
Two homicide detectives desperately search for a serial killer
In 2002, New Line Cinema proposed a sequel named Ei8ht that would be based on a repurposed spec script titled Solace by Ted Griffin. Fincher believed that leaving the implication to the audience’s imagination had been more effective than showing a special effect. Although it is only implied that Tracy’s head is in the box, Fincher recalled an encounter with a woman who believed she had seen the contents of the box. Seven revitalized Fincher’s film career, establishing him among the most iconoclastic Hollywood directors of his generation. The New York Times called the title credit sequence for Seven “one of the most important design innovations of the 1990s”.
Howe and Owen Gleiberman said the ending is “like an act of treachery against the viewer”, undermining any hope for a positive outcome; and Barry Norman said it denies the audience “even of the final comfort they fully deserve”. Muir credited Seven’s breakout success to its hybridization of horror, police procedural, and urban noir aesthetic, as well as describing instead of showing much of the violent imagery, leaving it to the audience’s imaginations. Seven also performed well in areas outside the U.S. and Canada, receiving positive audience reactions and successful debuts in Australia ($1.8 million), South Korea ($808,009), Seoul ($961,538), New Zealand, and the Netherlands. Audiences polled by market research firm CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of “B” on a scale of A+ to F.
The following day, another victim, who had been forced to cut one pound (0.45 kg) of flesh from his body, is found; the crime scene is marked “greed”. The film has inspired a number of television series and films with its aesthetic, music, and premise. However, it grossed $327 million worldwide, seven casino becoming a sleeper hit and the seventh highest-grossing film of the year. An Italian film company optioned his script, but following financial difficulties, the rights were sold to New Line Cinema. Somerset also befriends Mills’ wife, Tracy (Gwyneth Paltrow), who is pregnant and afraid to raise her child in the crime-riddled city.
Seven (1995 film)
- However, Somerset’s intellectual and philosophical inclinations isolates him, with fellow officers resenting his propensity for posing what they deem unnecessary questions.
- During its opening weekend, Seven grossed $14 million across 2,441 theaters—an average of $5,714 per theater—making it the number-one film of the weekend, ahead of the debut of Showgirls ($8.1 million), and To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything!
- One segment had to be re-filmed because the location was too dark for the camera to capture Freeman’s face.
- The ending was scripted to take place directly beneath transmission towers, a location Doe selects to interfere with the police communications; the towers, however, interfered with the film crew’s radios and the actors had to use cell phones to communicate with the crew from afar.
- Pitt and Paltrow also developed a romantic relationship while filming Seven.an Freeman’s performance established him as a mentor-type figure archetype, which he would reprise in many later projects.
- The studio’s marketing president Chris Pula called the advertising campaign for Seven risky because it had to prepare people for the film’s dark, violent content while making it a topic of discussion among potential audiences.
- In the 2020s, MovieWeb and Stuff called Seven one of the most memorable and “quintessential” crime thrillers of the 1990s, representing a high point of the genre and filmmaking for the decade.
In the years since its release, Seven has grown in esteem, receiving general critical praise, and being described by the British Film Institute (BFI) as a groundbreaking thriller. Doe’s notebooks offer insight into his misanthropic worldview, revealing disdain for the city and extreme reactions to mundane urban interactions. During the final scene’s car ride, Somerset detects a baser motive in Doe, suggesting he takes pleasure in killing people.
Collider credited Seven with a contemporary resurgence in Christianity-themed, supernatural, and apocalyptic mystery films. Subsequent genre films and television shows, such as The Bone Collector (1999), Along Came a Spider (2001), also starring Freeman, and the Saw series (2004), replicated Seven’s grim aesthetic, body horror imagery, and the premise of disenchanted detectives pursuing criminals with distinctive killing methods and motivations. A 2014 poll of 2,120 entertainment industry professionals by The Hollywood Reporter ranked Seven the eighty-fifth-best film of all time. This distinction is attributed to its bleak and seldom matched ending, as well as its stylized reality devoid of popular culture references or technological emphasis, ensuring it does not reflect any particular time or place. Mills, characterized by his optimism and relatively light-hearted nature, moves to the city with the belief that he can have a positive influence. While Moir proposes that the film leaves Doe’s legacy open-ended, hinting at the potential for further deterioration, Oleson argues that Doe’s impact in the real world cannot be ignored, asserting that discussing and studying Doe inadvertently validates his vision.
The unlikely pair chase after the killer and attempt to solve the case before another victim falls. Pitt and Paltrow also developed a romantic relationship while filming Seven.an Freeman’s performance established him as a mentor-type figure archetype, which he would reprise in many later projects. Seven’s use of non-mainstream music by Nine Inch Nails is also seen as contributing to increased use of similar songs in films such as Final Destination (2000) and Resident Evil (2002).
Filming took place over eight days, including two days filming a hand-model stand-in for Doe. Cooper regularly conferred with Wall on ideas, and spent the night before filming locating items such as fish hooks and loose hairs from his drain, which he believed would make interesting inclusions. Artist Wayne Coe storyboarded the sequence, which Harris Savides filmed and Angus Wall edited. The title sequence depicts Doe’s preparations and routines for his murderous plans, such as cutting off his fingertips, processing photographs in his bathtub, and making tea. Cooper focused on Doe’s elaborate journals, briefly glimpsed in the film, while Fincher suggested the sequence should depict Doe.