The Actions of the Characters in the Seventh Victim Films - Essay Example

The Lessons from "The Seventh Victim” Noir films are very common nowadays because people find pleasure watching them.Similarly, horror movies are on the rise because they are preferred than actions by some people. However, it is not clear why some people like them so much being that they instill fear. They also portray cases of death, which is chilling to individuals. Early, movies were rampant and set the trend for such films in the modern. The Seventh Victim directed by Mark Robson is one of the movies, which has elements. Film noir and horror is seen through the actions of the characters and the elements used in plotting the movie. Therefore, this paper will focus on the lessons learned from The Seventh Victim and discuss elements of noir and horror using three other articles. The Seventh Victim has many psychological impacts to the characters as well as to the reader. The first emotional impact is witnessed as the story begins when Mary has to leave her studies on revelation that the sister has disappeared. Mary felt the emotional impact of realizing the only relative she had, the only sister, and the only one capable of paying her fee was missing. This made her leave school to go search for the sister. Although the school administration showed her amnesty by letting her work as an assistant teacher to reduce the balance, the emotional effects were much high and decided to leave everything behind. From all these, it is evident that emotional impacts run so deep into peoples life that makes them unable to cope with any other thing. Mary was disturbed and unable to continue with education. Secondly, the feeling indicates that the continuous search for the sister leads Mary to desperation. There were many cases when the search for Jacqueline resulted in despair and death, especially to Mary and the investigators she contacted to help in the quest. For instance, desperation made Mary contact Irving August and agreed to accompany her to La Sagesse before being killed by an unknown assailant. This made Mary run away for her life before meeting another team of drunkards who one happened to be the murdered detective. Her desperation did not end there; she met lawyer Gregory Ward, a boyfriend to the sister. He arranged to give her a job as a kindergarten teacher as she continues to look for her sister. The lawyer kept many secrets from Mary knowing very well that he is the husband of the sister whom she is searching. All these indicate the frustration cases that the movie portrays the characters. The film is paramount in making people realize the consequences of their actions. For instance, Jacqueline fell a victim and ruined her life because of the decision she made concerning her life. First, she listened to her friends or workmates more than the values she held about life to join the satanic cult. This made her lose all her possessions by offloading her shares from the company. Similarly, she had to run away from her apartment and seek refuge from elsewhere because of her actions. She betrayed the cult by revealing the activities, making her hides. Moreover, she became sick; suffering from depression because of the troubled life, she underwent. Because of all these, she needed to seek the services of a psychiatrist and physician to normalize herself. Similarly, the effects of people’s actions reveal itself on the suffering that some characters go through. For instance, the blunder that Jacqueline did made her sister, Mary to leave school because she was unable to pay the fee. In the case all went well; Mary could have finished school without experiencing any problem. Similarly, her sister Jacqueline caused her more psychological torture on realizing her absence and inability to pay the fee for the last six months. Additionally, Mary felt a victim for her actions when she decided to pick people out of frustrations to help in the search of the sister. At one time, she was almost murdered when the detectives helping her search for the sister were murdered. All these happened because she was unable to judge what is best for life and make better decisions towards overcoming a problem. The long search for Jacqueline led Mary to befriend Ward without knowing that he was a friend to Jacqueline. All these scenarios happen because of the individual’s actions that they do not know or anticipate their outcomes. Lastly, the movie reveals the rules that guide the sub-cultures and groups in the society. This is evidenced following the consequences that Jacqueline was to undergo because of exposing the cult practices. For instance, members of the cult kidnaped and condemned her to death because of disobeying the rules. The rule of the cult states that whoever reveals the secrets must die and it made Jacqueline to fall victim. She was going to be the seventh person to be condemned to death hence the title as per the cult. However, the cult has rules against violence, hence cannot kill Jacqueline, and decides that she should kill herself. Her refusal to commit suicide make the cult leave her, but send an assassin to follow her before killing one. She escapes and goes back to her house before hanging herself. Hence, there is suffering and death because of an individual’s actions and activities. The movie also makes its impact by combining film noir and horror that Val Lawton authored in different ways. The film portrays great psychological horror scenes that make it classified under horror as it also considers the factors that the above author elaborated. First, the horror scenes depict themselves when the Mary picks a private detective and begins their long search for the missing sister. They walk in the wee night in looking for the sister before the murder of the detective (Meehan 66). The murder scene creates a horror situation when the viewers see how Mary runs for her life since she would become the next victim of murder. More so, the event took place at night, which is associated with horror and other thriller actions. Mary ran for her life and boarded a train, which took her back to her original place. On reaching and boarding her car, two rubber-faced drunkards enter her car too, and place their arms on her. The horror comes in when one of the people in her car is the dead detective (Meehan 66). What a surprise and shock, it seems the dead is walking again. Secondly, horror is shown when Mary was taking a shower, and one of the satanic told her that she should stop searching for the sister and walk back home (Meehan 67). This was in the form of a dialogue through a shower curtain, which had pictures resembling a deformed beast with horns: it was scary. Imagining about the image printed on the curtain sis itself horrors since nobody wants to be associated with satanic pictures or talking to them. Moreover, speaking to Satan is frightening, and none can stand even for one minute. Jacques Tourneur, Narration and Incarnation: I Walked with a Zombie has many connections with The Seventh Victim concerning film noir and horror. In the Narration and Incarnation: I Walked with a Zombie, the director achieved the noir and horror using voice or sound. The article elaborates the use of voice-over which is a narrative device used in noir films. It is used in the conventional way as it also evokes the first person narration. The movie, The Seventh Victim shares many things as related to this film, hence falls in the same category. The voice over is used when Mary was dialoguing with one member of the cult group. Moreover, The Seventh Victim borrows heavily from Robert G. Porfirio’s No Way Out: Existential Motifs in the Film Noir in the way noir is presented. In this film, the motifs includes the anti-hero, alienation, loneliness, violence and chaos. They are the main features in addition to sentence to death, ritual and murder that makes the film a noir ad horror. They share the same similarities with The Seventh Victim because there is death sentencing, murder, and loneliness. Therefore, it is obvious that the article has elaborated some aspects that qualify a movie to be a noir and horror since the elements are the same. Lastly, the article, some visuals motifs of noir by J A Place and L. S Peterson portray how noir is achieved through photography and lighting. It elaborate show one can achieve noir using visual styles. It has given many explanations such as noir lighting being very low this is because it should not allow the visibility of everything and some must be left in the dark to hide some scenarios. Additionally, the article states that the traditionally noir lights are called mise-en-scene and they disorient the viewer. In the movie, The Seventh victim, the use of dark lighting is present as the viewer is unable to see who and what happens in the background. This brings a chilling effect to the viewer. In conclusion, The Seventh Victim has used lighting, sounding and editing to bring the effects as well as noir and horror part of it. The movie uses the dark lighting or low light in order to hide some activities and cause fear to the viewer. More over the sound used is terrifying more so when involving a dialogue. Besides, there are many lessons learnt from the film such the impacts of one’s actions as in the case of the protagonist. Read More