Saw
Saw
Every decade or so, there seems to be a movie that comes along that has a lasting impact. It could be a new twist on an old classic, or go one step higher and create a whole new genre.
Psychological thrillers were nothing new in 2004, and the last great one was “Seven”, released almost a decade earlier. But no one expected a little film made for about $1 Million primarily in one location to go global, and launch a decade long franchise in it’s wake. But that’s exactly what “Saw” did.
The film had its fair share of early buzz that year, and early previews suggested it was a dark, twisted but ultimately compelling new take on the serial killer story. You probably know all about Saw, and it’s many sequels, and like most people do, you probably sit in the camps of either “I loved it” or “I hated it”. I’m somewhere in between, especially with the sub-par quality sequels. And as debatable as they are in terms of quality, you can’t deny that the Saw franchise has a unique edge when it comes to the psychological game it plays with the audience.
You have a serial killer, called Jigsaw. But the twist is, he’s never actually killed anybody. He finds ways for his victims to kill themselves. Rigging up deadly and intricate traps, devices, and games, he forces his chosen ones into a choice of Life vs. Death. Selecting his test subjects carefully, Jigsaw finds people who have lived a life that is of question. In some form or another, they have not shown appreciation for their life, or the life of others. As the victim awakens in their predicament, they are usually greeted by either a tape recording or a video – featuring a creepy doll with a raspy voice – explaining the situation they’re in, and reminding them of the sins they have committed. Jigsaw taunts that escape will be difficult, but not impossible. But the cost of saving their life at the expense of losing something personal, or having to sacrifice someone else in the process, will test their wits, and reveal how much they truly do value their own life.
This is a very clever and convincing way of playing with people’s minds. Essentially, all the victims Jigsaw chooses are either criminals or bad people in some way or another. You will either feel something for them, or you won’t. And when you are witnessing their impending doom, wondering if you think they deserve to be there or not, you are drawn into the front seat view of their torture trap unable to look away, but also squeaming in your seat at the unrelenting blood and gore on display. While watching these scenes unfold, you can’t help but ask yourself “What would I do in that situation? Could I do what I was instructed to in order to survive?” The fear runs rampant through the characters, as they race against the lock to outwit their captor and try to survive the game. And that’s exactly what Jigsaw sees it as – a game, but also an exercise in morals and judgement. He poses the question, “Who ultimately deserves life and death? And who gets to decide the fate of others?”
Pretty deep stuff for a horror film, and if you can sit through the never-ending series of traps, devices and twisted tests of pain, torture, and death you can see past the gore and violence, to the underlying themes of the Saw franchise. In spite of its sadistic nature and physical brutality, it does touch on some important subjects, and reminds the victim, and we the viewer, that no matter what situation we’re in or the problem we face, we always have the power of choice. Jigsaw likes to mess with this balance, by initially taking the victims power away by trapping them in the first place, but giving them power back in having to make a choice. The choice will have its circumstances, whether they lose a limb, a vital organ, or the life of the person forced into the trap with them, but it drives home the harsh truth of humanity - when faced with danger, we will also revert to our basic instinct, which is the need to survive, whatever the cost.
Seeing this film at the movies in 2004, quite by accident, was not the experience I was expecting. It was a Friday night, and a bunch of mates and I were out for dinner. Two of us had a few drinks, and as the dinner winded down, we decided the night was still young. The group started heading off, but the local cinema was not too far away, so off we went. Saw had just opened, so we attended the late night session. The drinks had settled in, and we were both on the merry side. Concentrating on the movie proved a little trying, as you will know the Saw franchise likes to use a non-linear timelines to tell its story. It jumped from one location to another, showed flashbacks of the characters, and sub plots that all revolved around the central act – two guys who wake up in a derelict bathroom, with their feet chained to a pipe. In the middle of the floor, is the body of a man, lying in a pool of blood, a hole in his head, a gun in one hand and a tape player in the other. Our two test subjects – Adam and Dr. Lawrence Gordon – soon find the clues left behind. Each of them has a tape of their own to play, where the killer addresses them personally, talking in metaphors and mixed messages about the sins of their life and why he has chosen them for his game.
Both men have more than their life to lose, and will be tested both physically and psychologically to the edge, all before the clock hits 6pm. While they try it put together the pieces of the puzzle, the film jumps back and forth to two homicide detectives working the Jigsaw case. In their search for the culprit, we witness some of the maniac’s other creations where seemingly ordinary and innocent people are pitted against extremes pain and punishment. There is the guy who was looked in a room, with a slow working poison in his system. The antidote lies in a safe with a combination lock, and the number is written on the wall somewhere amongst thousands of other numbers. His only light in the darkened room is a candle, but he must be careful how he holds it, as his naked body is covered in a flammable substance. Then there’s the guy who wakes up in a cage made of barbwire. Jigsaw taunts him from a video recording, citing the many times this man has attempted to end his own life by cutting his wrists. In order to get out of the room before it’s sealed shut forever, he must climb through the tunnel of sharply, serrated steel, ultimately cutting himself multiple times if he wants to get out.
Clearly, Jigsaw has done his homework on each of his victims, and imagines horrible and macabre ways to test them. Seeing this film for the first time was a mixed bag of feeling scared, shocked, disgusted, but also having a few laughs along the way. As the characters are tested, we the audience are tested, feeling their pain mentally and emotionally, as we bare witness to acts of torture that are both cruel and plain evil. Whoever though of this franchise liked to play in the dark corners of their imagination, and as painful as the film is to watch, it is also a remarkable achievement in filmmaking. So blown away by it all my mate and I were, we gave the film a standing ovation at the end, as it’s capped off by a brilliant twist ending and fantastic music that just heightens the whole intensity of the viewing experience.
Made for only a million bucks by some Melbourne film students, the original Saw went on to make about $100 million bucks, so the studio sent the sequel into production quickly. Once a year, every Halloween for the next six years, we were treated to another Saw movie. Part’s 2 and 3 were reasonably good, showing more background of the characters and new traps and devices that were even more unbearable than the ones before. The franchise hit a bit of a low point with films 4 and 5, as it all started to feel a bit routine. The standard twist ending would come, just like the first film, but it was either terribly predictable or didn’t pay off the way it should have. Then part 6 was an improvement, and surely, no more films could have come after that right? Wrong.
Saw: The Final Chapter, also known as Saw VII or Saw 3D cashed in on the 3D gimmick phase of 2009/2010 and the whole story came full circle. Although I found many of the sequels detestable and routine, I still rocked up to the cinema every year to watch them. It was fun sitting with a packed theatre of people going “ooh” and “aah” as each new trap pushed pain to the limits. The convoluted story of Jigsaw and his amazing attention to detail, was engrossing, and even after dying in the third film, he continued to show up in a series of flashbacks in each sequel. It seemed his legacy was farther reaching that just himself and one bathroom from the first film. He had accomplices, owned warehouses, and was able to create any kind of torture tool he wanted to. His character was a compelling one, and despite his killer instinct, he actually made some good points about Life and Death, right and wrong, justice and crime, and so on.
In it’s wake, Saw gave way for the new genre known as “Torture Porn”, which assumes that the audience likes to watch these movies with an addiction and voyeuristic point of view on the same level as pornography. That’s disturbing…
And the imitations weren’t far behind, with notable franchises like “Hostel” going down a similar path, and most horror films pushing the blood, gore, and violence to boiling point. But audiences lapped it up, and even if the Saw films are less substance and more shock, they still manage to reel you in with its unique premise and original concept.
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