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Kim Hunter, Tom Conway, Hugh Beaumont, Isabel Jewell, Jean Brooks ... see more see more... , Evelyn Brent , Erford Gage , Elizabeth Russell , Chef Joseph Milani , Marguerite Sylva , Mary Newton , Wally Brown , Ben Bard , Joan Barclay , Feodor Chaliapin Jr. , Wheaton Chambers , Kernan Cripps , Edythe Elliott , Bud Geary , Barbara Hale , William Halligan , Tiny Jones , Milt Kibbee , Adia Kuznetzoff , Lou Lubin , Eve March , Howard Mitchell , Ottola Nesmith , Charles Phillips , Dewey Robinson , Sarah Selby , Jamesson Shade , Lloyd Ingraham , Ann Summers , Betty Roadman , Mary Halsey , Edith Conrad , Lorna Dunn , Eileen O'Malley , Edward Thomas , James Cromwell , Marguerita Sylva

Producer Val Lewton once more utilized leftover Magnificent Ambersons sets for his psychological horror piece The Seventh Victim. Kim Hunter arrives in New York's Greenwich Village in search of her er... read more read more...rant sister Jean Brooks. Gradually, the naive Hunter is drawn into a strange netherworld of Satan worshippers. The story is a bit too complex for its own good (especially with only a 71-minute running time to play with), but editor-turned-director Mark Robson and screenwriters Dewitt Bodeen and Charles O'Neal keep the thrills and shudders coming at a satisfying pace. Lewton regular Tom Conway offers his usual polished performance, while veteran character actresses Isabel Jewell and Evelyn Brent look appropriately gaunt and possessed in the "cult" sequences. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Flixster Users

68% liked it

1,178 ratings

Critics

92% liked it

12 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 11 min.

Directed by: Mark Robson

Release Date: August 21, 1943

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DVD Release Date: October 4, 2005

Stats: 142 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (142)


  • May 27, 2011
    a brilliant dark mystery from producer val lewton, this was director mark robson's first film. it's a rather obvious inspiration for rosemary's baby with a shower scene that looks awfully familiar as well. with a nihilistic tone and a shocking final scene, it's a wonder this fil... read morem ever got made in hollywood. one of the great unseen thrillers from the golden age, starring beaver cleaver's dad and zora from planet of the apes!
  • October 14, 2010
    The 7th Victim doesn't sound like much on paper but viewing it is an entirely different matter. It's a precursor to Rosemary's Baby, The Third Man and has has a shower scene that... well, just see it for yourself. One of Val Lewton's more impressive accomplishments. The 7th Victi... read morem also has a great cast that compliments is eerie photography very well. It gets its point across in its 71-minute running time but oddly leaves you wanting just a little bit more. It also serves as proof that Lewton never really got his due, but was way ahead of his time...
  • October 13, 2010
    This movie is predictable and unscary, but there are some good scenes too. This movie's not bad, but it's not good either.
  • October 1, 2009
    This is a dark physiological thriller ahead of its time. Underline message; Sometimes it?s better to be dead! God bless you Val Lewton! This is a film not to be missed! The scene with the chair and the noose is as chilling as anything in contemporary film. As with all Lewton film... read mores, it?s what you don't see that scares you!
  • December 28, 2008
    A young girl searches New York for her elder sister, who has fallen in with a group of devil-worshippers. This isn't top-notch Val Lewton but it's still pretty great. I think there are more scenes and more characters than the typically slender running time can adequately sustain.... read more Consequently, although there are some lovely atmospheric touches, they tend to be rather fleeting; I would have liked to have savoured them a little while longer. The softly spoken intimidation of Kim Hunter in the shower is wonderfully sinister, in its own quiet way every bit as good as Hitchcock's famous and flashy shower scene in Psycho. A very sweet Kim Hunter makes her screen début and Jean Brooks sports one of the most striking hairstyles in B-movie history. Due in no small part to the wistful presence of Brooks, The Seventh Victim is a strange, surprisingly depressing little movie; probably not a good one to watch if you're feeling down in the dumps.
  • August 28, 2008
    Although most of the themes are left to imagination, as usual in any Val Lewton horror production, I surrender to the moody atmosphere director Mark Robson sets up. This was indeed a film ahead of its time, in its depiction of devil worshipers not as strange entities or mad caric... read moreatures, but as any rather normal person with desires of success. Two horror masterpieces came to my mind while watching this, Psycho and Rosemary's baby, both surprisingly melded in an excellent shower scene, in which the shadow of a lady with a hat looks very much like a horned satanic figure.
  • May 31, 2008
    Offbeat film with a gothic tone and noirish attitude about a young woman searching for her missing sister in New York and meets a group of parties who are similarly interested. Val Lewton produced this suggestive film that leaves true horror to your imagination with one of the b... read moreleakest endings to any film ever made in Hollywood.
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  • August 30, 2009
    Very stylish and ahead of its time. Cool mixture of horror and noir. Interesting depiction of devil worshipers as not demons or cartoonish crazies- but as selfish and bad people but ones that could be your co-workers or neighbors. Great use of shadow and light.
  • November 12, 2008
    Actually, The 7th Victim is pretty similar to Rosemary's Baby, but made 25 years earlier. I must say that this is a terribly underrated early horror classic that is truly scary and suspenseful. Val Lewton really knows what he's doing. One thing that I didn't enjoy was Kim Hunter'... read mores acting...but it was her first role.
  • October 28, 2008
    Not unlike most of Val Lewton's stuff, short. 71 minutes, not much in the way of action which is fine, some very creepy moments and themes, but a far cry from, say, Hitchcock (yeah, I know, Master comparisons aren't fair.)

Critic Reviews


Variety Staff
November 15, 2007
Variety Staff, Variety

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

Jonathan Rosenbaum
January 1, 2000
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

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

Jeffrey M. Anderson
April 15, 2011
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid

Endlessly gripping and endlessly fascinating. Full Review

Fernando F. Croce
April 1, 2010
Fernando F. Croce, CinePassion

Astonishing Full Review

Walter Chaw
October 22, 2009
Walter Chaw, Film Freak Central

the gauziest, maybe the most influential, surely the most underestimated, Lewton production. Full Review

November 15, 2007
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Perhaps producer Val Lewton's most personal film, and certainly one of his greatest. Full Review

February 9, 2006
Time Out

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

Matt Bailey
October 18, 2005
Matt Bailey, Not Coming to a Theater Near You

It is clear that the film was designed to appeal to an intelligent film-going crowd out for a thrill as well as those just looking to get the bejeezus scared out of them. Full Review

Christopher Null
October 15, 2005
Christopher Null, Filmcritic.com

It's a very well-made psychological thriller (before such a term even existed) filled with good performances. Full Review

Ken Hanke
August 21, 2002
Ken Hanke, Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

Creepy classic horror

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

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