Saw I, II, III - And Where it Lost me

I will stand by the opinion that the first Saw movie is brilliant. It probably helped that I didn’t know the twist and was one of the people who had my mind blown by it. (Sorry, people who saw it coming from the beginning – I’m just not as clever as you. And that made me enjoy this movie.) It also helps that it was Cary Elwes – being a big The Princess Bride (and The Cat Returns) fan.

But what really makes Saw good is the simple premise – would you shoot someone to save your own life?

That’s really the core of the movie and it pushes that question by adding the pressure – this man has photos of your ‘affair,’ your family is being held hostage – will you shoot? The psychological element, and the fact that it’s Elwes and Whannell who carry the entire movie – trapped in a room and shackled to the wall – make Saw a classic. That’s without mentioning the short filming times or the low budget. And, of course, it’s twist ending is legendary.

The other Saw traps we see in this film are also in the realms of believability. A stretch for someone in Jigsaw’s position, but not completely out of the realms of possibility – especially with one or two loyal followers.

Additionally, this movie plays on the ‘seeing bad things happen to bad people’ element of horror films. These are people that don’t ‘value’ life – the Jigsaw Killer is helping them find that again. It still doesn’t make him a particularly grey villain, but at least he’s coming from it at an interesting angle. (Though I am sure that, choice or not, you can make a very strong case in court for his being a serial killer.)

It’s a twisty film that knows when to show the gore, and when to focus on the idea of gore. Seeing that reversed bear trap going off is a lot scarier when it stays a thought as opposed to seeing it happen to a human.

So – I enjoyed the first Saw and decided to continue with the series.

Saw II isn’t awful. Again, it makes use of an interesting concept with the house full of traps and the victims having to work together to play the game. Combine this with cops working against the clock, and we have another tense, psychological horror. This is where it steps up the gore to infamy, too. (The first Saw is less gory than Seven – but one’s classified as a horror and one’s a thriller. Okay.) And lets face it – the Saw traps are why people watch these films. They’re freaky and bloody and make you question what you would do in that situation.

Unfortunately, this is where the big complaints with the franchise start to come into play. These traps are more elaborate. Can one man – one man suffering with brain cancer – really put all of this together? How long would it make? Yes, he has helpers, but this is a lot for a few people – where did they get all those heroin needles? (An incredibly cringe-worthy trap, but one that raises a lot of questions) Again, it’s a real stretch of the imagination, but this is movie magic and what’s the step up from a room trap? A whole house trap, of course. We’ve dealt with weirder horror movie sequels.

But this film also sets up the twist formula. There has to be a twist to end a Saw movie on – it has to be big and unexpected. The one in this one – isn’t bad. I mean the time twist, not the Amanda twist. That one was obvious, but it worked in the time twist’s favour. You don’t expect two twists. And using time is a clever touch. The Amanda (Shawnee Smith)twist on the other hand…was bearable? My problem with Amanda is that her original trap is one the easiest one I’ve seen. Yeah, the man was alive – but it’s a lot easier to cut into someone else’s stomach to save yourself than cutting into yourself or sticking your own hand in a vat of acid. It’s easier than shooting someone point blank when you’re both sober – and there’s a much shorter time limit to think about your actions. The fact she survived the trap isn’t an incredible or brave feat to me, and that’s the set up of her whole character. If that doesn’t work, then none of her really works.

So Saw II was as good a sequel as you could really get. No, it’s not as good as the original, but it’s not so terribly awful. It’s watchable, it pushes it’s premise and I can see why people were still on board with the franchise.

I actually watched Jigsaw (2017) after that – because it was a prequel and it was on Netflix. It lived up to the gore of the second one, in a few ‘I can’t watch but I can’t look away’ moments that have mentally scared me. (Why else do we watch these movies?) It does, unfortunately, fall to the question of practicality. 'Jigsaw’s' machines in this one are more elaborate than in the first movie – so much so that the reversed bear trap seems like a tame step down for him. Confusing, but not movie breaking. The group traversing the many traps are interesting to watch and capture the best parts of the franchise.

Unfortunately, there’s a split narrative. This is important, because this time, I called one of the twists. Which didn’t effect my enjoyment that much – if anything I enjoyed it more because I felt so clever for guessing it.

The second twist is really what lost me. Because it relies on you not knowing how lasers work. I know what a laser would do to someone, so cue two minutes of confusion because I couldn’t figure out if I had called the second twist too, or if the movie makers really didn’t know anything about lasers. Although, this led to another scarring moment, so – that makes it worth it?

Overall, Jigsaw was a pretty nonsensical prequel (sequel?) that became predictable for a series praised for its unpredictability. I could start to see why people referred to it as just torture porn with poor plot. It wasn’t great, but it’s the nth sequel so I wasn’t expecting anything fantastic.

I took a break. And sat down to Saw III a little while later. I was in the mood for something a little bit mindless and a lot gory. Saw III is that. But it was where I will leave the franchise alone.

Here’s the thing. I know that everyone in horror movies drinks at least a little bit of stupid juice. People never behave rationally in a horror movie because there wouldn’t be plot if they did. But in Saw III, everyone has taken way too much of it.

No one behaves like a human, here. The very statement ‘keep this man with late stage brain cancer alive indefinitely in a scummy warehouse with rudimentary medical equipment,’ is absolutely nonsensical. The man needs a hospital, Amanda. It’s that simple.

Alongside this are the traps. They need to keep getting bigger and gorier because that’s the premise of this series – isn’t it? But the whole point of the traps is that there’s a way out. The whole point of the reversed bear trap was imagining what that would do on a human head. (To begin with.) Now we see everything and whilst it’s gory and horrifying – it doesn’t have that same ‘what if’ keep you up at night thoughts. (Or maybe I’m just desensitised now.)

When these traps aren’t impossible, everyone doing them has drunk stupid juice that morning, (yeah. Stand in front of the very obvious gun. I can’t see that ending badly) or spend too much time hesitating given the time limit. (Half the deaths could be prevented with a little bit of conviction.)

Of course, there's a reason the traps in this movie are impossible, but it seems a flimsy Watsonian excuse for the Doylian excuse of the audience want to see gore.

Then we come to the twists. Most of the ones so far rely on not giving you information, so it seems unfair to use that complaint with these ones. Generally, though, the mechanics are becoming clearer and clearer - if the audience don't know a key bit of information, it can become a good twist.) But maybe they seem so inane because we’ve come to expect some bonkers twist with these movies. Maybe it’s because everyone took another shot of stupid juice whilst dealing with the situation to the point where its distracting from the already bare-bones plot.

This is the film that’s made me bow out of the franchise. With a plot that relies on people acting ridiculously and traps that have to play out – either by ridiculous behaviour or by being impossible to win – Saw III displays everything that gives the series its declining reputation.

I think I’d rather finish the movies by watching the 'how to escape Saw n' reels instead. That way I’m not wasting an hour and a half of my life just to regret the morbid curiosity the torture traps bring.

Spiral (2021) is set to refresh the franchise next year, though does not look like it brings anything new to the table. I'll be keeping an eye on the trailers to see if its worth the watch.

(P.S: Saw 0, the short film that got the franchise a full-length movie deal and started the whole phenomenon, is available on youtube. It's essentially just a reverse bear trap, but it does bring up the very important question of - where did Billy the puppet's snazzy little hat go? Bring back the boy's hat!)