Director David Fincher rebounded from Alien 3 with this seemingly innocuous serial killer flick penned by Andrew Kevin Walker. We’d seen buddy cop flicks and killers with gitchy modus operandis before, but characterization and style put Se7en over the edge. It’s a deeply creepy and unsettling movie centering around a seasoned detective (Morgan Freeman) and a rookie (Brad Pitt) who are paired in pursuit of a mysterious killer who’s patterning his murders after the seven deadly sins. Talk about your horror set-pieces. The scene where the detectives discover ‘Sloth’ contains one of the most memorable shocks I’ve ever experienced at the movies, and the way in which ‘Lust’ is played out also haunts my memories. Freeman and Pitt’s performances keep the story well grounded and relatable, while composer Howard Shore washes the movie in a brooding orchestral score that reinforces the film’s constantly claustrophobic atmosphere.
As far as monster movies go, this is the one to beat. It’s the only film directed by the late Stan Winston, the special effects wizard who brought so many creatures and otherworldly characters to life in movies like Jurassic Park, Terminator 2, and Edward Scissorhands. I always wished he’d directed another movie, because Pumpkinhead is creepy as hell, a superb dark fairy tale that’s drenched in atmosphere.Â
The public will never let director Joel Schumacher live down his Batman movies, but let’s not forget that before there were nipples on the Batsuit, there was The Lost Boys. A divorced mother brings her two sons to a coastal California town to live with their grandfather and make a new life for themselves. There’s just one problem. The whole town is prey for a gang of vampires!
