Movies
Brad Pitt Recalls Premiere Audience’s Reaction to the Ending of ‘Se7en’; “What the F Did We Do?”
Movie endings don’t get much more memorable than the “What’s in the box?!” scene from David Fincher‘s Se7en, wherein Detective David Mills (Brad Pitt) realizes that what’s in the box is his pregnant wife’s severed head. Mind you, we never see the head – belonging to Gwyneth Paltrow – but the grim ending is horrifying and truly disturbing all the same.
When audiences first saw the movie back in 1995, well, they left the theater in a state of disturbed shock. That was of course Fincher’s goal with the movie, which is in no way interested in making sure you have a feel-good time; but Pitt admits to wondering if they had gone too far in a new interview with Marc Maron on the podcast WTF With Marc Maron.
Pitt recalled, “We had the premiere of Se7en – no one had seen it. The movie ended – her head’s in the box – they flick on the lights and I look at people. And they just kind of slowly get up from their seat and no one’s talking. Then, they just kind of disappear from the screening.”
“I remember looking at Fincher and going, ‘Oh my god, what the fuck did we do? What happened. What’s going? I thought this shit was great.’“
Of course, Pitt’s concern was unfounded, as Se7en was a massive hit both critically and at the box office. The film pulled in $327 million worldwide on a $33 million production budget, and it’s widely considered to be one of the very best crime thrillers – I call it a horror movie, personally – ever made. Proof that sometimes the right ending is the darkest possible ending.
Twenty five years later, we’re still haunted by the grim brilliance of Se7en.
Movies
‘Backrooms’ Director Kane Parsons Is No Fan of Generative AI: “Defeats the Purpose Entirely for Me”
There has been a lot of talk recently about filmmakers embracing generative AI as part of the filmmaking process, from Darren Aronofsky to Martin Scorsese. But what about filmmakers that are against the use of Gen AI for creative pursuits? You can count 20-year-old Backrooms director Kane Parsons among that group, which should give you some hope for the future.
In a new chat with The Australian, the self-taught young filmmaker makes it crystal clear that he won’t be using generative AI in any of his upcoming filmmaking projects.
“I think I’m in the same boat as most well-adjusted people,” Parsons tells the outlet. “If I could snap my fingers and make generative AI disappear forever, I probably would. Creatively, I get no enjoyment from using those tools. It defeats the purpose entirely for me.”
“What interests me more is interrogating it artistically,” Parsons notes. “We already live in a world where you walk outside and there are billboards and signs that are obvious AI slop. That’s become part of our visual reality. To me, generative AI feels less like innovation than a symptom of a broader cultural and economic rot.”
He explains, “I’m interested in using that iconography in art – not using AI to make the art itself, but examining what it represents. I definitely want to explore it further in future projects.”
Kane Parsons also notes during the interview with The Australian, “… there’s so much at stake and so many genuinely harmful consequences already happening.”
Backrooms marks young prodigy Kane Parsons’ feature directorial debut, and it’s based on his own series of YouTube videos that were brought to life using Blender, the open-source 3D computer graphics software suite. So it’s no surprise that Parsons, who has hand-made his filmmaking career up to this point, isn’t buying into the hoopla around Generative AI.
His debut feature is the #1 movie in the world, so perhaps he’s onto something.
What’s next from Kane Parsons, you ask? Stay tuned…
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