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In a world filled with black cats and Marilyn Monroes, we love to see a celebrity dress up for Halloween in a truly unique way. Case in point: Gwyneth Paltrow, whose costume this year was definitely outside the box… in the best possible way.
Paltrow’s 2017 Halloween costume, which she posted on her Instagram with a cheeky jack o’ lantern emoji, answers the frightening question we’ve had for 22 years after seeing Se7en: WHAT’S IN THE BOX?
We’re not sure a more-than-two-decades-old movie can require a spoiler alert, but we’ll just play it safe here.
*SPOILERS BELOW*
In the 1995 crime thriller SE7EN, Paltrow plays a woman named Tracy Mills, who is decapitated in a truly horrific way by Kevin Spacey’s evil character John Doe, who places her “pretty head” in a cardboard box, representing one of the seven deadly sins. In this case, Doe was envious of Tracy and her character’s husband David, played by the Goop founder’s then-boyfriend Brad Pitt, for their seemingly perfect marriage.
The climax of the film sees David begging and pleading to know what’s in the box and results with the audience (and David himself) horrified to learn what actually was in the box.
While we never get to see Tracy’s severed head in there, just the suggestion of it alone (and poor David’s anguish) was enough to make this scene an instant pop culture classic, still inspiring memes and GIFs to this day.
We love Paltrow’s costume idea because she’s the only one who could pull this one off so flawlessly. Perhaps next year we’ll get her “dying from bird flu” in Contagion look? Dare to dream!
What do you think of Gwyneth’s SE7EN Halloween costume? Let us know @BritandCo.
(Photos via Phillip Faraone/Getty, New Line Cinema)
