Film Theory: David Fincher's Se7en Is Set In Gotham Before Batman

4. John Doe Is A Classic Batman Villain

John Doe's plan throughout the film is, of course, to perpetrate seven grisly murders, with one corresponding to each of the seven deadly sins - gluttony, greed, sloth, lust, pride, envy and wrath.

And it follows that the theatrical, almost playfully effed-up nature of Doe's quest could've easily been torn from a classic Batman comic.

Despite Se7en's gritty look and tone, there's an undeniably contrived quality to Doe's scheme that requires an inexplicable number of things to go his way, not unlike the convoluted schemes you'd see cooked up by, say, The Joker or The Riddler.

There are numerous moments that especially point to Doe as a classic Batman villain in disguise: the Riddler-esque clues he leaves for Mills and Somerset after every crime, the Joker-like manner in which he defaces Mrs. Gould's (Julie Araskog) picture, and the literally hundreds of notebooks Doe has filled with his own psychopathic thoughts.

That's not to forget the fact he's described as independently wealthy and clinically insane - two hallmark tropes of iconic DC supervillains - and the film's iconic finale doesn't feel a million miles away from something you'd see The Joker pull off in Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight universe.

The final twist, that Doe commits envy himself by murdering Mills' wife Tracy (Gwyneth Paltrow) and goads Mills into murdering him and completing the cycle with wrath, is perhaps the most dementedly Joker-ish act of all. Zero fear of death, total desire to punish the "hero" as much as possible.

In much the same way that Gotham's villains lock the city in a vice grip of fear, so too does Doe terrorise the unnamed city's residents, while naturally whipping the media into a frenzy.

But Doe is ultimately just one piece of the puzzle, the horrifying villain presiding over a city rife with degenerates primed to fill out the Caped Crusader's rogues' gallery...