‘Seven’
Re-watching ‘Seven’ recently (spoiler alert) I was looking out for the shot of Gwyneth P’s head in the box at the end and I was surprised when it didn’t appear. Not only did I remember it clearly but I’d also thought how well it had been done – her real head edited in, not some shonky wax work that didn’t look anything like her. Having looked on the net however, the consensus seems to be that there is no version of the film which shows GP’s head in the box. If this is true then it really is proof that less is more – that by not showing her head the movie forced me to imagine it so vividly that I really thought I’d seen it.
Stephen King argues that the horror story writer should have the courage of their convictions and reveal the monster at the end and hope that good writing will make it an Alien not a Mr Blobby. I’d followed that advice with The Lion-Man but now I’m not so sure. Maybe it’s best to let the reader’s mind do the work, let them fill the vacuum with their own imagination.
In the end the monster is always the same anyway, whatever disguise it comes in it’s always Death.
Trackback from your site.