The Seventh Victim (1943)

(On Cable TV, September 2021) It’s interesting to go back in time and see some of the earliest examples of clichés. Sure, Satanist cultists are a dime a dozen in today’s horror films, but you can go back to 1943’s The Seventh Victim to see an early version of the trope, as a young woman goes hunting for her missing sister in New York City (that den of perversion!) and finds her indoctrinated in a cult. I have to admit that I had a very, very hard time getting into The Seventh Victim, my attention constantly wandering away from it — I had to restart it three times before it stuck, and even powering through the movie netted not much more than an abrupt, unsatisfying ending. But I was surprised to find out, doing background research for this review, that the film has a rather enviable contemporary reputation — it’s not just a precursor to Satanist cult horror, but its shower scene is thought to prefigure the one in Psycho, and its homosexual undertones (which I barely noticed) now bring the film under the queer cinema umbrella. I strongly suspect that The Seventh Victim, often mentioned as one of legendary horror producer Val Lewton’s most intriguing features, is heavily dependent on mood — if you’re up for subtle gothic horror, unconventional dread and some missing narrative pieces, then you will probably have a better time with it than I did.