Thursday's Ways Not To Die

I suppose the phrase that pops to mind when thinking of the deaths in this film is "elegantly gruesome" - Fincher's camera is so beautifully maneuvered, the shots so precise, that he gets across everything we need to know about what happened without ever having to actually show us anything happening. Look at this sequence of shots and see:

Se7en (1995)

It's funny, watching this scene just now without the sound on, you realize just how visual a filmmaker Fincher truly is - you really don't even need to hear what's being said; the scene could be silent and you'd still totally be able to follow what's happening thanks to Fincher's economical shooting. The darkness, while a stylistic choice to be sure, also allows for the flashlight beams to signal where our eyes should fall amid so much (lovingly rendered) squalor.

Fincher himself has since questioned the moral ambiguity of such an overly-stylized approach, but I'll be goddamned if it ain't some pretty ugliness.

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Previous Ways Not To Die: Face Stuck In Liquid Nitrogen -- Crushed By Crumbling Church Debris -- Bitten By The Jaws Of Life -- A Machete To The Crotch -- Showering With A Chain-Saw -- In A Room Filled With Razor Wire -- Pod People'd With Your Dog -- Force-Fed Art -- Skinned By A Witch -- Beaten With An Oar -- Curbed -- Cape Malfunction -- In The Corner -- Cooked In A Tanning Bed -- Diced -- Punched Through The Head -- Bugs Sucking On Your Head

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