History NightmareFuel / Se7en

** Lust is a stiff contender for the most disturbing death, her genitals repeatedly mutilated with a bladed strap-on until she bled to death. It doesn't matter that none of it was really onscreen.

*** Bonus horror for you: the photo of "that thing" is a picture of it while it's on a mannequin. We never see the real one on camera, but the man is wrapped in a blanket, and you can clearly see that the blade is ''as long as his entire fucking torso''. That blade was long enough to go from that poor girl's groin straight up into her lungs, which means her entire abdomen would have been completely shredded to the point of the knife either going straight into her stomach (which means at least as much pain as Gluttony, if not more) and lungs, or possibly worse, banking off of her ''ribcage'' and creating an exit wound, and that's only on the ''assumption'' that she and the male victim were around the same size because Jennifer Mueller and Leland Orser are only about 3 inches apart in height. That's why the camera only ever shows her legs and some of her arms, they're the only parts of her still intact.

** Even though Somerset's not the main focus of the climax, the entirety of his emotional journey throughout plays a vital role in amplifying how harrowing it is. He's the only character in the movie that actually sees "what's in the box"; [[TakeOurWordForIt we only have his shell-shocked reaction to judge how bad it is]], followed by his proclamation that "John Doe has the upper hand" and him running off to Mills and Doe before we even realize what that means. Once he gets to the scene, his attempts to play mediator between Doe calmly revealing the finale of his plan and a rapidly unraveling Mills eventually come off less like him trying to stop Doe and convince Mills to take the high road and more like him ''[[FailureIsTheOnlyOption delaying the inevitable]]'', as Doe has bet that Mills will give into his wrath and fail to surmount his human instincts, which, unfortunately, he's right about. Once Doe [[InternalReveal drops the bombshell]] that Tracy was pregnant when he killed her, Somerset looks to the skies and hangs his head, essentially giving up the struggle and submitting himself to what's about to happen all through nothing but his body language. In the end, he can only tell Mills what it will mean if he pulls his trigger ("[[ThanatosGambit If you kill him...]]''[[TheBadGuyWins he will win.]]''") and look at him as he fights an unfathomable war of emotions; the most he can do is give Mills a silent plea with his eyes, but by this point it's clear how helpless he is.

** The entirety of Somerset's emotional journey throughout the ending. He's the only character in the movie that actually sees "what's in the box"; [[TakeOurWordForIt we only have his shell-shocked reaction to judge how bad it is]], followed by his proclamation that "John Doe has the upper hand" and him running off to Mills and Doe before we even realize what that means. Once he gets to the scene, his attempts to play mediator between Doe calmly revealing the finale of his plan and a rapidly unraveling Mills eventually come off less like him trying to stop Doe and convince Mills to take the high road and more like him ''[[FailureIsTheOnlyOption delaying the inevitable]]'', as Doe has bet that Mills will give into his wrath and fail to surmount his human instincts, which, unfortunately, he's right about. Once Doe [[InternalReveal drops the bombshell]] that Tracy was pregnant when he killed her, Somerset hangs his head, essentially giving up the struggle, admitting defeat, and submitting himself to what's about to happen -- all through nothing but his body language. In the end, he can only tell Mills what it will mean if he pulls his trigger ("[[ThanatosGambit If you kill him...]]''[[TheBadGuyWins he will win.]]''") and look at him as he fights an unfathomable war of emotions within himself; the most he can do is shoot Mills a silent plea with his eyes, but by this point it's clear how helpless he is.

** The entirety of Somerset's emotional journey throughout the ending. He's the only character in the movie that actually sees "what's in the box"; [[TakeOurWordForIt we only have his shell-shocked reaction to judge how bad it is]], followed by his immediate proclamation that "John Doe has the upper hand" and him running off to Mills and Doe before we even realize what that means. Once he gets to the scene, his attempts to play mediator between Doe calmly revealing the finale of his plan and a rapidly unraveling Mills eventually come off less like him trying to stop Doe and convince Mills to take the high road and more like him ''[[FailureIsTheOnlyOption delaying the inevitable]]'', as Doe has bet that Mills will give into his wrath and fail to surmount his human instincts, which -- [[TheBadGuyWins unfortunately]] -- he's right about. Ultimately, Somerset can only tell Mills what it will mean if he pulls his trigger ("If you kill him...''[[ThanatosGambit he will win.]]''") and look at him as he fights an unfathomable war of emotions within himself; the most he can do is shoot Mills a silent plea with his eyes, but by this point it's clear how helpless he is.

*** Although this can also come off as unintentionally ''hilarious'', considering that Mills had been ignoring the ''very covered in blood murderer who they spent the whole movie tracking down'', Doe's delivery can come off as exasperated.

*** Somerset and Mills are left so shaken by this specific murder that both of them are shown just sitting in the interrogation room after having finished questioning the suspects, silently. Mills goes home and gives Tracy a warm hug, saying how much he loves her, and it makes sense a family man would find something so sexually sadistic to be so particularly upsetting.

*** The man's traumatized confession is truly terrifying in a NothingIsScarier kind of way. Even scarier is how Creator/LelandOrser prepared for the role that almost rivals that of the Sloth actor: he didn't sleep for a few days, in order to give himself an authentically traumatized appearance, and practiced rapidly breathing in and out so he could hyperventilate on cue. The result is truly nightmarish.

Let's face it, the entire movie is Nightmare Fuel. The most horrifying thing about it though, were the murders...

*** "He's experienced about as much pain and suffering as anyone I've encountered, give or take...and he still has Hell to look forward to."

* The nightmare fuel starts before you even insert the disc with the Criterion Laserdisc's packaging. The 4 page booklet is a replica of pages from the killer's journal detailed further down, with photos and the information about the edition being taped on. The film and supplements are on 7 sides.

---> "[[OhCrap He's alive!]] He's alive! ''[[AndIMustScream The cocksucker's alive!]]"''

* The opening credits sequence is incredibly unnerving all on its own. The way it's filmed combined with the [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic music]] gives us a very clear idea of what it's like to be inside the mind of someone like John Doe and, boy, it is ''not'' a pleasant experience.

* The nightmare fuel starts with the Criterion Laserdisc's packaging. The 4 page booklet is a replica of pages from the killer's journal detailed further down, and photos and the information about the disc being taped on. The film and supplements are on 7 sides.

** The most infamous: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8m69o_1PoQ Sloth]], forced to be bedridden and starved '''FOR A YEAR.''' The stench of putrefaction was hidden by dozens upon dozens of pine tree air fresheners. And just when you thought things couldn't get worse, in one of the most iconic {{Jump Scare}}s of all time, '''''[[SpringLoadedCorpse he gasps for air]]'''''.

*** The actor who played "Sloth" (that's right, '''''an actual human being''''', not some animatronic dummy created by the special effects department) weighed 96 pounds at his audition. Creator/DavidFincher jokingly said that if he lost ten pounds he had the role. Later on, when the actor was on set for the first time, he admitted to only losing six. ''And he was in full makeup when he admitted so.''

*** One of the most horrifying, haunting things about Victor’s murder is that it is an extremely slow, torturous death that occurs in a crowded apartment complex and nobody notices because he’s forcefully gagged most of the time.[[note]]While he’s not shown to be wearing a gag it’s likely John Doe left him gagged while he was away and removed it for the photos he took showing Victor’s decline in excruciating detail. The gag would’ve eventually become redundant as his condition continued to decline and so eventually John would’ve removed it for good.[[/note]] The entire time he was surrounded by potentially hundreds of people who could’ve been able to rescue him if he was able to just scream for help.

-->'''''[[MadnessMantra OH GOD GET THIS THING OFF OF ME! GET THIS THING OFF OF ME! GET THIS THING OFF OF ME!]]'''''\\

** The most infamous: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8m69o_1PoQ Sloth]], forced to be bedridden and starved '''FOR A YEAR.''' The stench of putrefaction was hidden by dozens upon dozens of pine tree air fresheners. And just when you thought things couldn't get worse, in one of the most iconic {{Jump Scare}}s of all time, '''''[[SpringLoadedCorpse he coughs]]'''''.