Rachel Mensah

The film Seven, an American neo-noir psychological thriller, required a title sequence that would allude to its dark events, complete with sketchy characters, gore effects and its haunting plot-twist finale. The film doesn't immediately begin with the sequence but shortly after main characters (homicide detectives played by Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt) are introduced this sequence is used to serve its very important non-narrative purpose, namely giving the audience a sense of what the protagonists are up against. It acts as a two minute short story told in fragmentents by following the hands of an unknown man — presumably the antagonist, John Doe.

The use of camera work brings focus to unnerving intricate details all whilst concealing the man's identity. There is an absence of long-shots or wide shots throughout as contrasted with the prominent use of close-ups. Therefore we are never able to establish his location or even his appearance, which works to create enigma as his identity is not to be revealed in the early portion of the film. We see his hands involved in an array of tasks such as cutting, scraping and writing scribbling things but never shows a significant view of his body. The director chose to shoot from the tabletop close to the subjects, making the opening all about the villain's preparations which adds to the intrigue and sense of enigma. The use of big close ups makes his actions even more confusing as we are unable to get a clear picture of its purpose. It only portrays his dedication as he makes entries in his diary with book clippings and self-developed photographs. However, featuring these close-ups on photography of his personal items is effective in detailing the psyche of this character as it shows what his interests and intentions are. The audience is placed closely to him, enabling an intimate look into the mind of a serial killer preoccupied with religion and inflicting pain.

Editing is powerful here, making it an iconic use of opening credits. The sequence is stylized with a mash-up of scratched frames and fuzzed-up, glitchy graphics. A hypnotic effect is created by the use of flickering images which also behave as subliminal messages, giving us quick clues about the storyline. This is achieved through the captivating ephemeral imagery like the use of short length shots and single frame inserts. Stills (ordinary static photographs as opposed to a motion picture) were also used to highlight how grotesque the photographs were and make it appear more raw and evil. Most memorably, the editor makes it seem as though the credits are etched onto these images by the criminal himself as the hand-drawn font juxtaposed by the more formal Helvetica text looks like his own. It is as if the visuals are reflection of the mind of the killer. Furthermore, the typography was actually hand-etched and manipulated during the process to smear and jitter it, adding another layer of randomness and distress.

The opening credit music meshes together discordant sound effects and a nail-on-chalkboard remix of Trent Reznor’s industrial hit “Closer.” The layering of sounds has an uneasy feeling to it, setting the tone of the film and creating tension. At every moment puzzling screeches and scratches can be heard on the track. These mechanical and industrial-sounding noises may echo the sounds of crimes that this character has already committed. The relevance of the Nine Inch Nails song, "Closer", is that it's a well-known rock song (whose music video displays similar controversial graphic images) that incorporates violent imagery in its lyrics and makes reference to religion as well as aggressive love. This makes the spliced remix version a successful companion to the visuals as it has a disturbed, unhinging tone to it. Through association with the bold lyrics of the song and the distorted machine-like style of the Industrial Rock genre, the viewer is made to feel both unsettled and 'psychologically thrilled'.

The use of mise-en-scene cleverly portrays the villain planning some evil pursuit with the use of the film's props and provides further insight into the motives of this character. Seemingly, the sequence is designed to offer brief clues about the antagonist's master plan. Frequently, we see things being added to John Doe’s scrap books which has narrative significance which the spectator will understand more as the plot unfolds (he created hundreds of handwritten journals to show his apparent psychopathy and lead his investigators in the right direction). Other examples include the removal of skin from his fingertips (0:15 - 0:17) which causes confusion for the audience but is later explained by the discovery that Doe did this to avoid leaving behind incriminating prints. The villain cutting out the word 'God' from the U.S Dollar bill, whilst the only comprehensible lyric ("You get me closer to God") draws the sequence to a close, links to religion - a main concept of the plot. The serial killer played by Kevin Spacy is obsessed with the idea of the Seven Deadly Sins, using his interpretations of gluttony, greed, sloth, lust, pride, envy and wrath as the chronological framework for his murders. His actions in the credits foreshadow the events of the film and highlight his ideals. Moreover, this aids to make the American audience to feel almost immediate distrust of this person as it symbolizes a clear lack patriotism and disregard for normal societal behaviours. The idea that he would destroy money for ritual purposes and black out the eyes and faces of other causes concern, igniting negative emotions towards this antagonist.