Bookmonkey Saw: Day 16

Saw V

On to the fifth Saw film now, and it begins exactly where the fourth left off – many people have died horrible deaths (again) and a plot twist has left the audience wondering exactly who is doing the killing now and why(again).

Directed by David Hackl (who was the production designer for Saw II – IV) Saw V strives to answer exactly that question, using flashbacks to the first Saw film (again) and for the first time in the series, the second film as well.  In this film the victim running through the gauntlet is once again a group (5 this time), and the story flashes between them and the parallel story of an FBI agent who found an unexpected way out of a trap and is right on the trail of the new Jigsaw Killer.

By this time in the series, much of the focus has shifted from story to the horrible death traps used by the killer, but as my interests don’t run that way, neither will my blog posts.

An interesting note my wife pointed out to me was that the heavy use of dioramas in the series (first in the original film, but most strongly in the fifth), looks an awful lot like those used by “The Miniature Killer” in the seventh season of the CBS television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation which lasted for the majority of the season and began airing about a month before the release of Saw V. 

For the next two posts I’ll be looking beyond the films, following the logic that “…if the film and television industries invest so heavily in previews, bonus materials, merchandise, and their ilk, so should we as analysts..” (Gray, 2010, p. 8). So get ready to learn about the first Saw videogame and the VH1 Reality TV series Scream Queens.

Gray, Johnathan (2010) Show Sold Separately: promos, spoilers, and other media paratexts. New York , NY : New York University Press.

Bookmonkey Saw: Day 14

Saw IV

Okay, I'm trying to stay away from spoilers, but honestly I can't really talk about this film without giving away a big one.

Sorry.

In Saw III, the Jigsaw Killer is killed - he is very, very dead, and as these films involve human killers rather than monsters, he is not coming back.

But he did have a plan for just that occurrence.

In fact, the overall story of Saw IV really focuses on just how clever the Jigsaw killer was to put together a very complex plan that would be carried out after his death.

Interestingly, later that year (2007) a romance film called P.S. I Love You uses a very similar plot, in which a recently widowed woman finds that her loving husband left behind a complicated set of events aimed to help her in the bereavement process and get her life back on track.

So the fourth film in the series focuses, once again on a victim chosen to be tested by the killer and to either witness, help or prevent the deaths of a bunch of other people.  Taking a quick look at the special features on the DVD, almost all of them revolve around descriptions of how the fatal traps these victims find themselves in would work.

A quick side note on Saw fanfiction - there is a lot (check here).  Considering how lacking the films are in story, most of the fanfiction I looked over is either simple descriptions of torture, or ways in which the narrator are offered the chance to work with the Jigsaw killer as an apprentice (to be fair, the killer is the only fully developed character in the series up to the fourth film), with many adult-themed stories peppered through as well.

In the end, Saw IV (still being filmed in Canada, by the way), is pretty identical to the previous film - there is some play involving flashbacks, but in the end, I can't say whether it is better or worse than Saw II or Saw III.

Bookmonkey Saw: Day 11

Saw III

All right, the third film in the Saw franchise (and second to be directed by Darren Lynn Bousman), ups the ante from the previous film by having not one, but two extremely violent killings in the first twenty minutes.

A quick side note:  In previous posts I've mentioned that I enjoyed the first film and actually appreciated it's lack of onscreen violence and was therefore confused as to why the violence level increased so sharply in the subsequent films.  The answer?  The filmmakers read responses of fans in the horror magazine Fangoria that the first film would have been better if there had been more explicit, onscreen violence, and therefore changed the following films to reflect the tastes of the fans.

The problem with this is that Fangoria is a magazine which has heavy focus on makeup and special effects in horror films, so obviously it's readers would prefer more onscreen opportunities for special effects and makeup.  

The third Saw film basically sets the template for the rest of the series, a victim wakes up in a strange place and witnesses the torture or impending murders of a number of people - sometimes they help, sometimes they just watch, either way the film ends with the protagonist failing at their test and the Jigsaw Killer makes some announcement which (supported by heavy flashbacks) means that the test wasn't exactly what was expected.

The third film has people dying in various horrible ways, and includes a significant flashback to the first Saw film (other than a few cameos from Saw II the second film is barely mentioned) and actually concludes the series in a relatively satisfying way.

The problem being that after the dramatic success of Saw II at the box office(approximate $87 million, with a production cost of $4 million), both Saw III and Saw IV were immediately green lit for production.

Honestly, this month is beginning to feel like a marathon to me.

Bookmonkey Saw: Day 9

Let's take a moment to examine some of the effects the Saw franchise was having on popular culture in 2006 during the wait for Saw III.  

In April, Scary Movie 4 was released, including it's own version of the infamous banned poster for Saw II (pictured left), as well as featuring a scene where basketball star Shaquille O"Neal and daytime television star Dr. Phil McGraw awaken in a bathroom chained to the pipes.  Interesting side note - the comedic sequence in Scary Movie 4 is actually a little more graphic than the same sequence in Saw and the set used for the sequence was so close to the original used in Saw (2004), that the makers of Saw III actually asked the filmmakers if they could use the set for the next Saw film to be used in a flashback sequence.

In October, Spike TV created a new awards show, The Scream Awards, which focused on Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy texts, and featured awards such as Best Sequel (Saw II was nominated), Most Vile Villain (Tobin Bell was nominated as Jigsaw for Saw II), and Most Memorable Mutilation (Saw II was nominated, but as I'm trying to make this blog family friendly, you'll have to follow the link to see which scene was nominated).

Also - and honestly in one of the ways that I have to say the Saw franchise really impressed me at the time, Lionsgate films had it's third annual Give till It Hurts, blood drives, which included a partnership with the American Red Cross and worked to raise both blood and financial donations from fans.  For every release in the series a new promotional poster (The poster for the Saw III blood drive appears to the right) was sold, with all proceeds going to the Red Cross.

Bookmonkey Saw: Day 7

Saw II in a nutshell - everything I really liked about the first film seemed absent from the sequel.

Saw II in a slightly longer synopsis - a year after the events of Saw, eight people are trapped in a house and must make horrifying live-or-die-style choices to escape, while a police officer (and the father of one of the eight) captures and questions the jigsaw killer.  Although the film was not well received by critics, it did quite well and therefore another sequel was quickly ordered.

The original movie poster actually drew a bunch of media interest as it was banned by the MPAA - in the original picture (not shown right), it was apparent that the two fingers are severed.  The approved poster (as seen to the right), is therefore quite acceptable to put in the same theatres where kids were going to see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire around the same time. (Quick side note, my oldest daughter is equally upset by both the banned and approved posters, entirely due to the ragged fingernails - apparently manicures are not that expensive and even severed fingers deserve a little extra care).

The story was originally written as The Desperate, by Darren Lynn Bousman (who would go on to direct Saw III and IV), but due to it’s inability to get green lit on its own, due to it's violent nature and being considered "...too saw-ish" (1) it was passed over until the sequel to Saw was green-lit and it was found that The Desperate could be adapted into a workable script.

Also I feel it is important to note that Saw II was a Canadian-American Horror film (as were the rest in the series, with Lions Gates Films partnering with the Ontario Production Services Tax Credit) so on behalf of my nation, sorry.

Eight months after the film was released, star Tobin Bell was nominated for an MTV Best Villain award (along with Voldemort from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, The Scarecrow from Batman Begins, The White Witch from The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe) but lost out to Hayden Christensen in Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith for best on-screen villain.

The only thing I really liked about the sequel?  Just as Saw had a bizarre reference to Alice in Wonderland, Saw II does the same with The Wizard of Oz (the 1939 MGM film, not the original novel) when the Jigsaw killer informs his eight victims that “ The Clue to their [escape] can be found Over the Rainbow” 

Internet Movie DataBase. "Trivia" in Saw II.  Retrieved October 7 from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0432348/trivia

Bookmonkey Saw: Day 4

After Saw was released in 2004 to great commercial success, a sequel was quickly green lit and the release date of October 28, 2005 was announced.  

Fans of the series didn’t have to wait the entire year however, as Lionsgate films had a website The House of Jigsaw available for fans to chat and discuss both the original film and places the sequel might go.

Saw’s writer Leigh Whannel stated about the website that “...one of the best things for James (Wan) and I is watching people take ownership of the film and arguing about it, you're thinking oh my god, they’re discussing heatedly something [James and I] thought up.”(1)  Early posts in the forum range from spotting technical errors and conjecture about the motives of the killer, to ideas about what the second film might be about.

In October of 2005, a comic book, Saw: Rebirth was released as well as the uncut edition of Saw, which included two commentary tracks, a behind the scenes documentary called "Hacking Away at Saw" and a feature called "Full Disclosure Report: Piecing Together Jigsaw", which in the guise of a nightly news report,  was effectively a recap of the first film, and, for the dedicated fans watching all the special features, the first appearance of Detective Eric Matthews (played by Donnie Wahlberg) is actually in this short film, introducing him before his lead role in Saw II.

The Comic Book, Saw Rebirth, written by Renato Guedes, R. Eric Lieb, and Chris Oprisko, this single-issue comic is a prequel to the original film, attempts to explain the creation of the Jigsaw Killer from a civil servant to the mastermind he appears to be in the first film.  The comic didn't continue as a series, which isn't surprising, as it made no reference to Saw II, and really feels like conjecture on what must have occurred before the events of the first film rather than an attempt to tell as story in it's own right.

Works Cited:

Lions Gate Film, "Hacking Away at Saw" on Saw: Uncut Edition. 2005

Bookmonkey Saw: Day 2

Okay, so today let’s look at the first film of the series, Saw (2004).  Created by Australian filmmakers James Wan and Leigh Whannel, the story is actually quite simple.  Two men wake up in an abandoned bathroom, chained by their ankles to pipes on either end of the room.  In the centre of the room is the body of a man who appears to have shot himself in the head.  In its hands are a tape records and a gun.  The two men manage to acquire the tape player and finding cassettes in their pockets which say “Play Me” (Obvious shades of Alice in Wonderland here), are informed that they have approximately 8 hours in which to escape, which will only occur for the one left alive at the end.

There is also a sub-plot focusing on two police officers who are hunting down a serial killer called “The Jigsaw Killer” who places his victims in horrible hurt-yourself-and-escape-or-do-nothing-and-die traps (such as they one our two leads are in).

As with many horror/thriller films, there will be plot-twists and discoveries, but I’m attempting to write without spoilers so I’ll go light on those.

In terms of the Horror genre in 2003/2004 when the film was released at the Sundance Film Festival and later released throughout North America , here is what was going on.

2003 Was filled with a lot of sequels and remakes, Dawn of the Dead (Remake), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Remake), and Freddy vs. Jason (considered parts 8 and 11 of the Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13^th franchises respectively), as well as Van Helsing an homage to the classic Universal Monster movies of the 1930s.  Keep in mind that the Horror genre is one made of sequels and remakes; usually the producers and directors are working on their first or second film and horror films have always packed kids into theatres.

Saw worked in a very different way than the other options horror fans had at the time.  To begin, the killer is off screen for almost the entire film, second there is no female lead (one of the two men in the bathroom has a wife, but she is on screen for less than 10% of the film, mostly in flashbacks), and finally, although the story clearly owes concepts to both Mad Max (1979) and Se7en (1995 – which also focuses on cops trying to find an incredibly clever killer) Saw wasn’t an obvious remake or sequel.

Watching it myself I have to admit that the first film is kind of clever.  The on-screen violence is fairly minimal (you don’t see any severed body parts for example), and the story seemed innovative and quite smart for an incredibly low-budget film.  In the end, the movie did so well at the box-office a sequel was ordered with a release date set for the Friday before Halloween in 2005.