The Near Midnight Meanderings On A Movie With A Microwave Meal Part 11: Se7en (1995)

Hello there.Hope you're feeling well today.

So picture the scene. A city. Miserable, gloomy, no one is happy and most it would appear are living in accommodation at best uninspiring and at worse rank. Britain on pre Brexit eve? Not this time. It's an unnamed American city in the 1995 film Se7en.

Adding onto this unhappy mix is a serial killer whose style is to murder his victims in the style of the Seven deadly sins in the most grisly way imaginable.

And trust me when I say that calling these murders "grisly" is not a spoiler. It's also not recommended whilst having microwave Spaghetti Bolognese Indeed if you finish watching this feeling unaffected by any of the killings you really should see a shrink.

That's the problem for me with this film. Though it wasn't it's fault or mine. The manner of the deaths was the one surprise. Because although I'd  never seen it before....I knew the big reveal.
I was reading an article in a magazine years ago and there it was, mentioned in passing before moving on. It didn't bother me at the time. Hadn't seen it in the cinema or [insert video format here] and had no intention of seeing it. But cometh the challenge of watching every film in the Radio Times 2013 fun guide cometh the film.

So how do you watch a movie where you know the destination but not the route? Admire the acting of Morgan Freeman or Brad Pitt? Or perhaps the direction or the cinematography? Well certainly not the latter. Barring the very end the entire movie seems to have been dipped in the colour gloom. Heavy handed symbolism is not my thing. Ditto the stringy ominous music.

But everything leads to the fact I knew the big reveal. So it spoilt it for me.

So the question that needs to be addressed is this. If I hadn't known the ending would I have liked  Se7en?

Well......as I'm not a fan of serial killer movies....definitely not.

Until the next time.
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