Thriller analysis - Se7en

Directed by David Fincher, the movie Se7en was a Hollywood hit in 1995, many Hollywood stars, including Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt. Even the movie star’s names were enough to attract a wide range audience, without knowing fully what the film is about.
The actual title sequence begins at 04:04 minutes into the film and ends at 06:25, where the film’s genre is fully established through mainly eerie lighting, distorted soundtrack and mise en scene.

Within the title sequence, the audience never see precisely what is going on in the screen, however, all we can see is cuts of [what we automatically assume is] the killer and what he is doing. Which is called montage editing, a reel of short cuts merged together to make a sequence such as slicing of finger tips, diaries and even a tea bag, it lacks coherence, much like the killer’s mind as we come to realised later in the film.

Although the killer seems incoherent, we can also see elements of precision in his work, for example, the diary that we see him writing is rather neat, and we see him place tread through the needle with complete ease, therefore the director has used mise en scene to establish his killer as a random character, although smart and a perfectionist, cutting neatly, writing long sentences without lines etc.

Even though David Fincher never shows his killer’s face or body build, but just their hands, we can identify the type of character it is. First off, by the killer’s hands alone, we can tell by the size, roughness and the dirt under the nails, that this character in fact is male. Judging by his actions and his handwriting, that this man is also well educated due to all the books that are shown in the clip and slicing off his finger tips so that there is a less chance of him being caught. By watching the title sequence, we realise that the killer is obsessed with obscure deaths and torture seeing as he likes to cut photos of the victims and put them in his scrap book. Religion is also questioned here as we see the killer cutting out the word ‘GOD’ from a piece of paper.
As I previously wrote, mise en scene is used to set the genre of the film, for example, props such as blood, medical tools and photos of disjointed deaths link into elements of a thriller movie, it also foreshadows what will later come in the movie.

Lighting is another factor of mise en scene which we have to look closely at in this title sequence, unlike other movie genres, in a thriller, lighting is almost always dark and uncanny, however in this clip, the lighting is rather bright in comparison to the rest of the movie, yet it still as an eerie touch to it, as the screen constantly flickers, like a faulty light bulb [which is also an effect].
Again, there is lack of colour in this title sequence, like most thriller films, the only colours that are really shown is brown, white and black, this sets the mood/genre and also connotes as something old and/or plain, so when colours like the red blood comes on screen, we pay more attention to it, and it has more of a significance in comparison to the boring, plain colours.

Mostly throughout the clip, David Fincher uses only close-up camera shots in his title sequence, telling the audience that what he is showing you is important, it also adds to the enigma of the killer and the story line, as you are restricted from seeing the whole picture, no other camera shots are really used here, however, all the close-up shots are in fact taken at a high angle, so it may also be a POV shot, as if we are looking through the eyes of the killer.

Effects include non diegetic sounds of blades scraping against another metal and the flashing light, seeming as if there is a faulty light bulb, and also the text in the title sequence has an effect to it, as the background in pure black and the text is white whilst the font is as if it’s been scratched in, again linking into the genre of thriller. Throughout the clip, we can also hear non diegetic sounds of a saw, pages turning and other machines being used, which creates the illusion that the killer is working on something, again enigma is played, as we are uncertain as to what the killer’s motive is, and what exactly he is doing.

Another effect that is used frequently, is the look of a damaged film reel that are used in cinemas, which gives off the effect that it is homemade and old, just like how the killer is making a scrap book and everything is in either bad condition or homemade.

The soundtrack gives off a peculiar vibe, as it is distorted and has no clear rhythm, which could be argued as a reflection of the killer once more. Unfortunately, there is no diegetic sound within the title sequence, so we also do not know what the killer sounds like, which can be important as voice can establish status.