The Seventh Victim

Released Aug 21, 1943

1h 11m

Horror

List

95%

Tomatometer

20 Reviews

62%

Audience Score

1,000+ Ratings

After young Mary Gibson (Kim Hunter) discovers that her older sister Jacqueline (Jean Brooks) has disappeared, she leaves her boarding school and heads to New York City to track down her sibling. Arriving at Jacqueline's apartment, Mary finds ominous signs of trouble, with her sister nowhere in sight. Aided by psychiatrist Dr. Louis Judd (Tom Conway) and others, Mary gets drawn deeper into the mystery, and evidence begins to point to the involvement of a sinister cult.

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Variety Staff

Variety

Even the occasional good performance can't offset this minor dualer.

Nov 15, 2007

Full Review

Time Out

What other movie opens with Satanism in Greenwich Village, twists into urban paranoia, and climaxes with a suicide?

Feb 9, 2006

Full Review

Jonathan Rosenbaum

Chicago Reader

This is the greatest of producer Val Lewton's justly celebrated low-budget chillers.

Jan 1, 2000

Full Review

Howard Waldstein

CBR

Produced by the legendary horror impresario Val Lewton, and directed by Mark Robson, The Seventh Victim is a noir-tinged horror about the perils of cults.

Jun 27, 2023

Full Review

Trace Thurman

Horror Queers Podcast

One of the most chilling endings I've ever seen.

Rated: 3.5/5

Nov 29, 2021

Full Review

Joe Lipsett

Horror Queers Podcast

This gorgeous RKO B movie is classic Val Lewton: sophisticated, morally murky and filled with beautiful women stumbling onto horrors in alleys and darkened streets. Brooks is revelatory and the so-called villainous Palladists are fascinating.

Rated: 4/5

Nov 29, 2021

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dave s

An early effort in the short career of producer Val Lewton, The Seventh Victim is the story of a naïve schoolgirl (Kim Hunter) who travels to New York to investigate the disappearance of her older sister. Before you know it, she finds herself immersed in a world of shady characters and devil worshippers, never a good thing. While it has a couple of moments of genuine suspense, it ultimately feels as though it sinks under the weight of its meager running time as far too many characters are introduced, all of whom seem to have motives to keep the young girl ricocheting around Manhattan like a pinball. One lead immediately and improbably leads to another, all of which leads to a strangely unsatisfying climax and a stern lecture concerning good being a much better option in life than evil, as per the Lord's Prayer and the Hayes Code. It's not flagrantly bad, just flagrantly forgettable.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

andrey k

A nice mystery with horror elements that are mostly created by your imagination as the director knowingly doesn't reveal much. It's a genuinely revolutional aspect of the films by Val Lewton, to create a psychological horror. An early film about occultism, with young and very lovely Kim Hunter.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

William L

The Seventh Victim lives and dies on atmosphere and subtext, because on the surface it's mostly a darker, less engaging attempt at a Hitchcock thriller. There is a reliance on implication that that simultaneously provides much of what makes the film seem compelling, but at times boring on the surface, which isn't helped by a series of antagonists that never feel particularly threatening up close; only when you see them as shadows around corners or hear their threats through obscuring shower curtains do they feel as if they have any weight. There are certain moments when the cult's power is left in doubt and their willingness to subvert convention/commit violent acts really does give the audience a start (Esther's brazen bathroom intrusion, for instance), but the plot doesn't end up doubling down on it. There is a dark tone to The Seventh Victim that comes as a shock given the film standards of the time, capitalized by a morbid twist ending, but again so much of the time what is intended to be a creeping dread ends up becoming dull. Most unusually, both Brooks' Jacqueline and the other members of the Palladist cult espouse a particular brand of nihilism that was rather contrarian to the morality of the time, but then again they are chastised with the Lord's Prayer by a more 'well-adjusted' figure so I don't know exactly how revolutionary this stance is beyond recognizing the existence of people that didn't necessarily jive with the conservatism of the day. In recent years, critics have applauded what they believe to be homoerotic themes as well, even though if they were intended they are far more subtle (a woman experiencing depression after revealing a 'secret' to a psychiatrist, ostracism from the secretive in-group for revealing its existence, etc.). That may well be a valid analysis, but does it make this supposed-horror film any less boring? No, not really. (2.5/5)

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

09/16/21

Full Review

joe m

Middling noir-ish film with a horror undertone, "The Seventh Victim" has a lot of style and visually compelling scenes, but it can't save this muddled script and plot where it is not really clear why Jacqueline (Jean Brooks), sister of Mary (Kim Hunter), has gone missing even after Mary comes to NYC, stumbles on the Satanic cult her sister was mixed up with, then finds her sister only to keep losing her! A lot of dark alleys - pun intended - that seem to lead no where, especially to a coherent story.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

bwahahahahahahahahaha, proto so much of my favorite movies in such a weird, shambolic, somewhat off-the-wall format. Strong approve. And Joan Scott's incredible 1943 goth girl = YeSSSSSSS

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/13/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Not a perfect movie by any means, gets kinda convoluted after a certain point, but it's unnerving and creepy in ways few movies are, and its views on death and suicide are very daring.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/19/23

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Mark Robson

Director

Tom Conway

Dr. Louis Judd

Kim Hunter

Mary Gibson

Jean Brooks

Jacqueline Gibson

Hugh Beaumont

Gregory Ward

Erford Gage

Jason Hoag

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Synopsis

After young Mary Gibson (Kim Hunter) discovers that her older sister Jacqueline (Jean Brooks) has disappeared, she leaves her boarding school and heads to New York City to track down her sibling. Arriving at Jacqueline's apartment, Mary finds ominous signs of trouble, with her sister nowhere in sight. Aided by psychiatrist Dr. Louis Judd (Tom Conway) and others, Mary gets drawn deeper into the mystery, and evidence begins to point to the involvement of a sinister cult.

Director: Mark Robson
Distributor: Image Entertainment Inc., RKO Radio Pictures, RKO Home Video
Production Co: RKO Radio Pictures Inc.
Genre: Horror
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Aug 21, 1943, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 1, 2012
Runtime: 1h 11m

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