Greg's Thriller Analysis (Se7en)

Greg's Analysis

Se7en

The opening of Se7en is weird and discomforting. The camera shots go very quickly that you don't fully grasp what's going on instantly, which raises suspicion and suspense. We don't see this man's face, which The non-diegetic soundtrack in the background is the only sound we get. It's contains creaking sounds and other disconcerting sounds that add to the suspense. We also see an absence of bright and positive colours, which makes this sequence even more unnerving. The titles and subtitles throughout the sequence jump around the screen and come out of focus, which adds more to the disturbing, discomforting tone this opening is setting

 Sometimes there would be a shot that lasts longer, to show us certain images that may tell us something about this character and what he is doing. This image shows us someone's mutilated hands. This makes us ask the question 'What is this man doing with a picture of bent of broken hands?'

 We then see an extreme close up of a razor in his fingers. We see he isn't using the razor to cut his nails, but rather the skin on his fingers. This is a disturbing image and it makes us wonder why he is doing this to himself. At this point, I'm believing he is a psycho, possibly a serial killer.

 This is one of many shots of him crossing out certain words and phrases in a book. I think at this point, he is creating a cryptic message, but I'm only speculating. This makes us ask one overall question, which is 'What is he doing? In other shots he is writing something, but we don't know what. Because we don't know why he is doing this, it adds more suspicion to his character

 This shot shows us that he has crossed out someone's face. He may have done this because he may have killed him, which would make sense and tell us his is a murderer and a psycho. This picture also makes us ask the questions 'Who is he?' and 'Is he dead?'.

 This image confirms to us that he is serial killer. It shows a man with some sort of sharp object in the back of his skull. No normal person would file something like that, while also also cutting off the skin of his fingers. This image makes this character seen even more disturbing.

 This final also confirms something: What he is doing. In this extreme close up, he is binding his collection of papers into a book. This tells us that he is not filing these disturbing pictures and (probably) disturbing literature, but making it into a scrap book. Why he is doing this? We don't know, an the fact we don't know makes this character scarier. Overall this sequence tells us this character, who we don't see, is a disturbing serial killer who has made a scrapbook about what he has done.