Seven (1995) - 6 questions

Question: Okay, I don't get what happened to Victor exactly. Was he tortured? I get that his fingers were somehow used for fingerprints, but I don't get what else. And if he was (technically) still alive, why would all of those air fresheners seen in his room be necessary? What was done to him to make him be only technically alive? And - which victim was he and do we learn what exactly he'd done to earn the killer's malice?

Answer: John Doe simply strapped him to the bed for a very long time, keeping him alive while his body wasted away. Even though Victor isn't dead, the smell would probably be pretty horrendous - he won't have washed for a year and parts of him would start to decompose, hence the need for the air fresheners, to avoid the stench drawing unwelcome attention prematurely. The psychological effect on Victor would be horrific - trapped, unable to move, at the total mercy of a lunatic, fed only enough to keep him just above the point of death. There would have been no mental stimulation at all, except to wait in fear for Doe's next visit - Victor's mind would have snapped long before he was found. His body was alive, barely, but any capacity for rational thought would be long gone. Victor was the Sloth victim, hence the method of killing him by trapping him in a bed. Exactly what he'd done, we don't know - it may simply be that he was extremely lazy.

Question: First time I saw this film was when my parents rented it shortly after it's initial VHS release. I distinctly remember a scene taking place on Sunday morning where the killer knocks on the door to the Mills' apartment and Tracy opens. I have not seen this scene on TV, yet I'm sure I saw it originally since that was when I realised what would happen in the end. Is this scene still left in some editions and why was it taken out?

Answer: As with any movie, the TV version is missing certain due to time constraints, so this may explain why you didn't see the scene on TV. However, the DVD version I have includes the scene, if I remember correctly.

Question: While in John Doe's apartment Mills looks at something and says Victor's name. What was he looking at?

Answer: It's actually Somerset who says it - he's looking at Victor's severed hand.

Question: How is Sloth, a decomposed corpse, able to miraculously come back to life?

Answer: He never technically comes back to life. Apparently, he digressed into a coma like state, at some point he becomes startled and brain activity comes back on some sort of primitive defense level. From what the doctor says later on, there's no chance at all he'll survive, he's basically just a bundle of reflexes.

Question: What exactly did the killer do to the Lust guy? I never understood what happened there.

Answer: It was very grim! Basically he got a man who was with a prostitute and gave him a choice of having sex with her or be shot. The issue being that he forced the man to wear an elaborate 'strap on' device with a 12 inch blade attached. Ergo he was forced to choose between dying or killing the prostitute in an horrendous manner. This would of course pretty much destroy the rest of his life anyway. The woman was the real Lust victim.

Question: Where in the world does Se7en take place? I have literally spent hours in front of the TV trying to find this out. It's never mentioned, they never show a clear licence plate or a road sign with a specific name (not something like 10th St.), not even a police badge. I know it has to be a big city where it's raining constantly, with a desert right outside of town and near a lot of mountains. Is it meant to be a location, or is it deliberately vague?

Answer: It is meant to be vague. It was filmed mainly in Los Angeles though.