Saw Series

I’m going to start by saying I love the Saw franchise. It has sentimental value to me, which I’ll explain, so if you’re looking for a blog bashing the series, even the. films I didn’t like as much, this won’t be it. If my blogs haven’t made it clear, I’m a horror fan and have been since childhood. I’m a child from the Blockbuster era and have watched all kinds of horror. I don’t remember how or why I watched the first Saw, nor do I remember what I initially thought of it. The series wouldn’t pop into my mind again until 2006. I was 18, had just moved across the country to Phoenix, Arizona, and had started my college/adult life. A classmate I’d chatted with online invited me to go to the mall’s movie theater and watch the premiere of Saw III with him. Having only watched the first one, he invited me to his apartment to watch the first two before we walked to the mall to see the third. We were BLOWN away! The entire walk home we spent gushing about how much we loved the trilogy. And we were pretty inseparable after that. Shortly after, we became roommates, but he moved out of state before Saw IV came out. We told each other we’d wait until we could watch it together (I did watch it before him, sorry I lied Adam). After that, I started watching the Saw films every Halloween… though I didn’t watch any of the rest in theaters. Now onto the films. Let’s start where it all began, Saw. I’m not sure if it has aged well, but that could just be because I have watched it so many times. Regardless, giving credit where credit is due, that ending was BRILLIANT. It is up there with The Sixth Sense and Fight Club for best twist endings for me. It was a great story, and I loved the intimacy of it all. Saw II is a film I don’t hate, but I don’t love either. I liked that it had a group of people going through the test (we’ll come back to that later.) It was really interesting to see Amanda get tested again. Sidenote, Amanda is EASILY my favorite character in the franchise, and I knew Shawnee Smith from watching Becker. If you haven’t watched Becker, she plays this ditzy assistant (I believe she was an assistant or something along those lines). So, I was VERY shocked to see her as Amanda. Having the “contestants” for lack of better term, slowly learn they all have a criminal background, were all put away by the same person… and that the son of the cop who framed them and put them away is in the house with them, was interesting and added tension. The twist at the end was nice (being that Eric Matthews is in search of his son, but the game was already played, and his son is literally in a safe in the room with him, but he didn’t know it.) Saw III will probably always be my favorite of the franchise. It means so much to me and I LOVED how it adds context to the events that came before (the franchise will do this with future films… and sometimes I liked it, sometimes I didn’t.) There are many things I love about this film, so here we go. Something that is used again (not as well, in my opinion) is playing with the viewer’s assumptions. The film starts with a woman and man in bed together. They are arguing and she gets up to leave. Her name is Lynn and she’s a doctor. As she is heading out the door, the man tells her he wants a divorce. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this because you naturally assume they are husband and wife. You don’t learn until the VERY end of the film that Lynn is cheating on her husband with that man. SO BRILLIANT! For this game, Jeff is playing because he has let the death of his son consume his life… to the point that he is neglecting his daughter. (Another nice touch is Jeff telling his daughter that mommy wouldn’t want to see them like this. It makes the viewer believe the mom is dead.) In my opinion, those going through the game usually aren’t very likable. As I write this, I think the most likable ones were Adam and Lawrence from the first film. I say that to say I didn’t like Jeff. I sympathized with him… to an extent, but he irked me. Maybe I can’t relate because I am not a father and haven’t lost a child… but each part of the game was him encountering someone involved in his son’s death. Now, these people didn’t abduct and kill his son. His son biked into the street and got hit by a car. It was an unfortunate accident… but Jeff treats these people like they purposefully killed his son. One woman was a witness who ran from the scene and didn’t testify, then there is the judge who presided over the case. Finally, there is the man driving the car that hit Jeff’s son. Even in the flashback, you see that this man is pained and in tears for taking this child’s life… Jeff rubbed me the wrong way, and his eventual ending seemed like just deserts. In Jeff’s defense, he does attempt to save them all, even if at the last minute. He saves the judge, but the judge is killed while trying to save the driver. Another twist I loved in Saw III was learning the test was for Amanda. See, Amanda thinks the test is for Lynn, and while Lynn is technically being tested, it is really Amanda. She is meant to be Jigsaw’s legacy, but she makes unwinnable games. I could go on and on about this film, and maybe someday I will. But let’s move on for now. Saw IV I enjoyed. Officer Riggs was a character I liked seeing go through the game. As in, I thought he was a good person. It was a nice take, seeing Jigsaw actively recruit someone. It was also interesting that this film picks up right where Saw III left off. The lesson he is being taught is he can’t save everyone. As such, each segment of his game is essentially telling him to do nothing. The person he sees in his game is in the middle of their own test, and it is up to them to get out of it. As he goes, he seems to be learning, and you have hope for him… until the finale. At the beginning of the film, he bursts through a door and is told you NEVER go through an uncleared door. He does the same in this game and that causes Eric Matthews to get his head smashed by two big bricks of ice. We also learn that Saw III and Saw IV were happening at the same time. Saw V is a favorite of mine. It is probably top 3 for me (III is 1 and Saw is 2). As I stated regarding Saw II, a group going through a game is really interesting to me. The twist I loved about this film was the final two learn, during the final part of the game, that they were supposed to go against their instincts and work together. Naturally, they didn’t, resulting in only two making it to the end. The film also has Meagan Goode and Julie Benz. At this point, let’s talk about Mark Hoffman. He is probably the character I hate the MOST in the series. Much like Amanda did, Mark makes tests more to get people out of the way, making tests people can’t get out of. He was such an antagonist, and I didn’t understand why he kept escaping punishment. Saw VI wasn’t a favorite of mine. This film has something to say, which isn’t a problem, but it felt a bit preachy. Mark Hoffman takes on the head of the insurance company that denied John Kramer’s claim when he was seeking treatment for cancer. It has a twist like Saw III, but it didn’t land the same way. The head of the company, I don’t remember his name, is going through the game, and you see a mom and son, you assume that is his wife and son. There is also a reporter who is at the end of the game with them. When the head of the company gets to the end, you realize the reporter is his sister, his only family, and the mom and son are related to a man who died because his claim was denied, like John’s. Funny enough, this year while watching, I realized the dad was Charlie on Scandal. I felt bad for the head of the company, because he seemed to have learned his lesson, but still died in the end. The real twist is when Jill, John’s ex-wife, puts Mark in the iconic bear trap… but he survives… and the movie ends. Saw: The Final Chapter is my least favorite. It was a 3D film, and I’m wary of 3D horror films. The pinkish, thick blood was also a choice. This film, and VI, had games that involved other people who were basically just there to die. III and IV had people involved in the “protagonist’s” game… but in III, they were there to test Jeff’s need for vengeance and in IV, Riggs was meant to see the others playing their game and how they deserved to be in their test. In VI, for the most part, these were people who just happened to work for the company, and it seemed unfair to punish someone for making a living by working for a company, whose policies they may or may not agree with. Like VI, the people involved with the game had done nothing wrong. The Final Chapter starts with a game involving three people caught in a love triangle. It felt a little… trivial. The purpose of the test is so people appreciate their lives, being in a love triangle didn’t seem a strong enough reason to do so, but, c’est la vie. This film follows a man, Bobby, who claims he survived a Jigsaw test and has become successful from writing a book about it. We learn that Lawrence survived the first film and quickly learn that Bobby is lying. I don’t remember who of his team knew this information, but his fiancé didn’t. He has to go through the test, saving the people who work for him. Surprise, they all die. His fiancé is at the end, and he fails to save her as well. Of all the victims of the series, she was the one I felt the worst for, because she had done nothing wrong, other than love the wrong man. This films always have a B plot where the cops are working the Jigsaw case. In this film, the police are trying to keep Mark Hoffman from killing Jill. They fail. Terribly. And he puts Jill in the bear trap and kills her. It’s towards the end of the film, so you think all is over… but then Mark gets attacked. We discover Lawrence has been helping John since surviving the first film. He locks Mark in the original Saw arena, and the film, and series ends… Until 10 years later when Jigsaw comes out. I really enjoyed the film, and it had some nice twists. It’s 10 years after John Kramer’s death, but the games have started again. Jigsaw and Spiral have more of a police procedural feel than the previous films. This is also a group game, which I enjoy. Each test is for one specific person, as opposed to them working together to solve a problem. The twist in this film is the game we’re watching actually was Jigsaw’s first game. We also learn that the Jigsaw of this game was someone who was saved from the original game. He helped John throughout his games… I didn’t like this. Messing with the past too much is never a good thing in a franchise. It was the perfect amount up to around V. Even bringing Lawrence back for the “final” film was a nice touch. But then having more people be a part of the past makes it harder to enjoy rewatching the films. Finally, as far as we know, Spiral: Book of Saw (though now that I think of it, I’m pretty sure I read that Tobin Bell is returning as Jigsaw). I didn’t hate this film; I didn’t love this film. This felt the most like a police procedural. It also felt more like a psychological thriller than a horror film. My first time watching the film was just the other day. I’ve never been able to guess the twist of a Saw film before. Almost immediately, I had an idea of who the new Jigsaw was… and after a certain “death”, I knew for certain that person was the killer… and at the end, I was right. There was still a bit of a surprised at the end, which was nice. The change of the Jigsaw voice was… hard to cope with. I was VERY surprised that the story was about crooked cops and what not (which is what made figuring out the new Jigsaw so easy, this person was the only one who wasn’t a crooked cop, so it just made since they weren’t really dead.) All in all, I love this franchise. It’s so inspirational how these two filmmakers made this amazing franchise and went on to make other amazing franchises. I’ve gone on long enough. Maybe next year I will write a blog for each film on its own.