10 Movies Where Evil Won

9. Se7en

Serial killer John Doe (Kevin Spacey) may be only a human manifestation of evil - and moreover, he dies at the end - but that does little to dilute the ugliness of his heinous actions throughout David Fincher's superbly grimy thriller.

Doe crafts an elaborate and thoroughly revolting plan to highlight the worst of humanity by theming his kills off the seven deadly sins - a man is forced to eat until his stomach ruptures (gluttony), a pound of flesh is ripped from a lawyer (greed), a model commits suicide after having her face disfigured (pride) and so on.

But Doe saves the best for last, with the final two sins coming ferociously full circle. The sixth sin, envy, is Doe's own to bear, harbouring jealousy over Detective Mills' (Brad Pitt) family life and murdering his pregnant wife (Gwyneth Paltrow) as a result.

As Mills is delivered a box containing his wife's decapitated head, he's able to contain his anger for just a few scant moments before shooting Doe dead, fulfilling the seventh and final sin - wrath.

Doe's plan is undeniably convoluted, but it's worth it for the sheer sick poetry on display and the creativity of his scheme. If that ain't evil - and, admittedly, mentally ill - then what is?

He may have ended the movie with a bullet in his brain, but Doe's death was a necessary condition for his moral victory over a corrupted, defeated Mills.

It's an ending that Fincher and Pitt had to fight New Line Cinema for, who originally intended to replace the wife's head with that of a dog and cut Doe's death entirely. For shame.