Se7en (1995)

David Fincher's dark, serial killer classic "Seven" set a new bar for big market thrillers.  As crime scene detective David Mills (Brad Pitt) begins his new assignment alongside aging detective William Somerset (Morgan Freeman), a series of murders begins to plague the decrepit and rainy metropolis in which they live.  After discovering the words "Gluttony" and "Greed" written close to their respective murder victims, the two detectives come to discover that a killer is attempting to complete a series of murders mirroring the Seven Deadly Sins.  

After a couple close calls and some obstacles in the form of bureaucratic red tape involved in competent police work, the detectives begin to close in on their serial killer, just as he decides to turn himself in - covered in blood - at the police station.  Having witnessed the intricacy and meticulousness invested in his previous murders, the detectives find it highly suspicious that their chief suspect "John Doe" (who's gone through the trouble of cutting off his fingerprints for years) would simply turn himself in when he's only completed 5 of the 7 deadly sins.  Threatening to plead insanity if they don't comply, Detectives Mills and Somerset are lead by a shackled John Doe out into the lonesome desert, where they are met with a mail delivery of Mills' wife's severed head.  Repeatedly stating that he envies Detective Mills, the knowledge of his wife's death ultimately incites Mills to shoot and kill the murderer, completing the series of deadly sins.

In a stroke of genius, director David Fincher creates a bleak, unnamed city in which buildings have fallen into disrepair and rain falls constantly.  This choice not to attribute the film's story to any one city or time in history helps it stand the test of time, and creates the idea that this type of terror could descend upon any city, at any time.  The color palette of the film is extremely muted, with bright splashes of color only existing in the darkened basements of underground sex clubs and the photographic dark room of the killer himself… and the blood, which isn't so gratuitously splayed, but is portioned out in sudden and intense punctuation of the film.  One of the greatest differences between this film and other serial killer movies of its kind is that we actually come face to face with the murderer throughout the story.  From early chase scenes in which the killer's identity is obscured through clever backlighting and distant shots, to his surrender and revelation of intent, we see but we can't possibly comprehend this man.  Fincher's brilliant use of color and low angle photography help to drive the horror of this film, which many consider his breakthrough and establishment of himself as a burgeoning directorial talent.