Oooh Saw....the horror movie franchise that will never die. I suppose I see the appeal for those gore obsessed blood loving horror fans- but this movie was really less upsetting than I thought it would be.
Ok so there's a saw. We know this much. We know the saw will probably have to be used at some point. But the question remains...for what exactly? Westley wakes up chained by the foot in some derelict standard creepy basement place. There's also some other guy chained and what appears to be a dead guy on the floor. Blah blah blah after an hour of hopelessness and failed attempts to break free plus some flashbacks about the sick bastard responsible- Westley has to cut his foot off in order to save his family's life or some lame crap.
Maybe I'm being unfair but I was really disappointed in this one. Of course disappointment is not a strong enough word after I found out there will be like 20+ sequels...ugh. But really what is the whole movie based on? It's all about how far can the special effects and make up go to gross us out. There's nothing artistic, nothing special about it, just an excuse to gain Exorcist barf bag fame- which it will never do. The gore? Not as much of it as I thought there would be. The shots are too quick there isn't anything torturing the viewer in the same way that the person being tortured is. And I guess the real horror of these movies is putting yourself in the same situation. Would you really cut open your eye to get a key out to unlock some crazy death device? And what do you really have to gain if you win one of Jigsaws games? Oh right you get to come back in the sequel as his woman slave. Sweet.
I don't know I just wasn't really affected by this at all. I was much much more scarred after watching Hostel. And let's get serious if Westley was really handed a saw and told to cut off his foot he would obviously say "As You Wish" and suck it up and just friggin do it.
Jigsaw is an okay villain I guess. But I don't buy his whole making people grateful for their lives crap. Yeah let's strap you to a death mask and see how you handle the situation. I Guess I'm just over the whole how far can we go to gross someone out deal. Gore doesn't make a good horror movie-it's how the movie affects you after you see it and what kind of "horror" it truly leaves you with and Saw left me feeling whomp whomp... LAME. Anyone agree? The ultimate overrated horror movie in my opinion.
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3 comments:
Maybe it's just the fact that I love a movie with a genius villain, especially one who gets away (Hannibal, the Usual Suspects etc) but I thought this movie was one of the best horror movies of all time.
Even the second one is pretty darn good (though the rest can all go to the trash). My main problem with the series (moreso in the later movies) is that it's TOO gory. The movie revolves around a brilliant, calculating villain, it doesn't need to rely on explicit gore.
Also, I think you're kind of missing the point about Jigsaw. It's not so much his goals of redemption blah blah that matters, but the fact that he ACTUALLY believes it. He's not supposed to be a good guy, he's gone insane to the point that he actually thinks he's doing good.
I suppose we just have different tastes, but this movie will stay on my hard drive forever.
Could be Riley. You've touched on my biggest complaint with the Saw series--that it relies too heavily on the gore. For the most part my greatest beef with Saw is that it spawned an entire pointless movement of gore for gore's sake.
The original Saw film for me was just not my cup of tea. I get of course that Jigsaw is not suppose to be the good guy I just think how they explain his need to create games for people to value their life is reaching.
For me Saw is the epitome of what I don't like about newer horror films. It's hard to describe but I think it's just that they are ugly, and do not mean things the way that so many others have. Different tastes perhaps but I'm willing to bet it's all the sequels that have mostly made me despise this unfortunately.
Although I agree that the amount of sequels is ridiculous I was also surprised by the 18 certificate, I watched it aged 15and think it contains enough violence to make a mild 15, but not enough happened explicitly for it to deserve its reputation.
I do disagree that there is nothing special though, I think that Jigsaw is an excellent villain, he is clearly clever and I find the amount of work behind each of his traps intriguing. The fact that the characters stories interlock together I think is a stroke of genius and shows Jigsaws dangerous knowledge.
I also feel the camera work used in the flashback deaths adds to the characters terror and shows their mental state.
Jigsaw himself is in a way trying to do good, but in a sadistic and twisted way.
However some parts of the film I see as useless, such as the Pig-faced person who kidnaps the characters, whats with that?
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