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The Seventh Victim (1943) – Episode 97 – Decades of Horror: The Classic Era

“I run to death, and death meets me as fast, and all my pleasures are like yesterday.”  Join this episode’s Grue-Crew – Whitney Collazo, Chad Hunt, Daphne Monary-Ernsdorff, Joseph Perry, and Jeff Mohr – as they journey once more to the dark world of Val Lewton with The Seventh Victim (1943).

Decades of Horror: The Classic Era
Episode 97 – The Seventh Victim (1943)

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A woman in search of her missing sister uncovers a Satanic cult in New York’s Greenwich Village, and finds that they may have something to do with her sibling’s random disappearance.

IMDb

The fourth of nine budget “horror” films produced by Val Lewton for RKO Radio Pictures, The Seventh Victim falls squarely in the atmospheric subgenre of horror film noir. Joseph expresses his love for Val Lewton, film noir, and horror, calling The Seventh Victim a great combination of the three. Whitney appreciates stories with multiple relationships between characters who have more to offer than what is on the surface, and finds such a story in The Seventh Victim. The stunning visuals filled with shadow and unusual camera angles are what captured Daphne’s attention, and, of course, she loved seeing a younger version of the Beav’s dad (Hugh Beaumont). “Pure Lewton” is what Chad calls this amazing example of noir filmmaking, with it’s great mixture of horror and film noir style. Jeff loves how the story puts a naive and innocent main character in a world where everything seems cryptic and no one seems to say what they really mean.

Of course, the Classic Era Grue-Crew gives The Seventh Victim a hearty recommendation. As of this writing, The Seventh Victim can be streamed from Shudder. Other Lewton-RKO films currently on Shudder are Cat People (1942), I Walked with a Zombie (1943), The Leopard Man (1943), Curse of the Cat People (1944), The Body Snatcher (1945), and Isle of the Dead (1945). 

If you’re interested, the Classic Era Grue Crew has covered two other Lewton produced films:

Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror: The Classic Era records a new episode every two weeks. In the next episode, they will discuss a movie chosen by Chad, Island of Lost Souls (1932), based on H.G. Wells’ The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896). “Are we not men?”

Please let them know how they’re doing! They want to hear from you – the coolest, grooviest fans: leave them a message or leave a comment on the site or email the Decades of Horror: The Classic Era podcast hosts at feedback@gruesomemagazine.com

To each of you from each of us, “Thank you so much for listening!

Jeff Mohr
Jeff lives smack dab in the middle of the cornfields of Iowa and is a long-time horror fan. His first remembered encounters with the genre were The Wizard of Oz, Tarzan gorilla chases, and watching the first broadcast of The Twilight Zone episode, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." While he now qualifies as an old fart, he strives to be an Old Boy. Paraphrasing Robert Bloch, he has the heart of a small boy. He keeps it in a jar on his desk. Jeff has written for Horrornews.net and SQ Horror Magazine. He currently writes for Gruesome Magazine and is a co-host of the Decades of Horror podcasts - The Classic Era, 1970s, and 1980s - and the Gruesome Magazine Podcast.