Bookmonkey Saw: Day 25

Before we get to the final Saw film (and a minor rant I'll have about how to number sequels in a franchise - you have been warned), I wanted to spend a little time explaining why I decided to choose the Saw franchise as my focus for the last month.

1) I am a fan of the horror genre - since I was a child I've always loved scary things - it may come from being the only boy growing up in a houseful of women, or maybe because there was always something forbidden about the idea of seeing scary films and books (Stephen King novels were kept behind the librarian's desk in my school library growing up), and therefore when a new series or must-see title comes out, I'm asked by friends for my opinion. As the Saw franchise dominated theatres for seven straight years, I felt that I should take some time to check these films out.

2) I kept coming across references to the franchise throughout my regular non-horror reading and viewing habits.  Three quick examples - a) A character from one of my favourite sitcoms dressed up as the Jigsaw Killers doll (pictured right), b) I came across a reference in a book I was reading about healthy living:

"At the start of my project, I considered a triathlon but dismissed it.  I'd even watched a few YouTube videos on triathlons, including one that purported to be a motivational video.  It featured stumbling runners collapsing on the road and convulsing.  There was a woman on a stretcher.  With an IV in her arm.  That kind of motivation does not work on me.  When I watch Saw III, I don't say to myself, "Hey, I really want to be chained up in a sociopath's basement."  Same idea. (p.250)

3) The fact that the franchise stretches across Television, Comics, Movies and Video games really interested me, and unlike a series like saw Resident Evil, which has six games, almost a dozen novels, a couple animated films, and comic books as well, it seemed possible to explore the franchise in a month.

In the end, Saw has become a short-hand for popular culture to refer to extreme violence in horror films as well as the genres tendency to spawn multiple sequels - like Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Friday the 13th, etc., and I believe that any text which gets that degree of reference throughout popular culture deserves a critical view.

Works Cited

Jacobs, A.J. (2012) Drop Dead Healthy: One Man's Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

Bookmonkey Saw: Day 1

Okay, so lets join your pal Bookmonkey for a talk about the Saw-franchise of horror films.

In 2004 Lions Gate Films released a horror film which would dominate the horror genre in film for the next seven years and touch upon other formats ranging from comic books and video games to reality television.  It all began with...

Wait, first let’s go back to the beginning.

In 1979 Australian Cinema hit the mainstream with the film Mad Max.  The finale of this car-chase / revenge film has ex-cop Max Rockatansky (played by Mel Gibson) come upon one of the villainous thugs who murdered his wife and child early in the film.  Forcing the man to handcuff himself to a car, Max sets the vehicle on fire, brandishes a hacksaw and states:

Max: The chain in those handcuffs is high-tensile steel, it’ll take you ten minutes to hack through it with this. (tosses villain the hacksaw) Now, if your lucky, you can hack through your ankle in five minutes. 

Walking away from the vehicle as it burns, the audience hears the scream of the thug followed by the vehicle exploding.

The creators of the 2004 horror film Saw, Australians James Wan and Leigh Whannell, were both two-years-old when the first Mad Max film was released, but both state that the film, and specifically this scene “...was definitely a big, direct influence”(1) on Saw (2004) which has two men handcuffed to pipes in an abandoned building and facing the same dilemma.  

It is these connections, along with the fact that the Saw franchise had a new motion picture out the Friday before Halloween every year for seven straight years, and that the story expanded into other areas, including significant aspects of popular culture, that drew me to want to make an examination of the series.

As a long-time horror fan myself, but definitely one who prefers the monster movie sub-genre, I was of course familiar with the general idea behind the series, but until this month have not seen any of the central or related texts.  

1. Hartley, M. (Director and Writer) (2008). Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! [Film] Australia: City Films Worldwide.

Genre Character of the Week: Kristi Rey

Our genre character this week is a little tricky, because although the character is well developed over the two films she appears in, I found the horror of each of these films diminished as the series progressed.

 

Oh yeah, sorry – Kristi Rey is the main character of the film Paranormal Activity 2, and is also a main character (as a child) in the prequel film Paranormal Activity 3.

 

So (spoilers included) lets go back the fall of 2009 and the phenomenon of the Paranormal Activity franchise.  It was a found footage style film (clearly influence by The Blair Witch Project) which followed the lives of a young couple, Katie and Micah who dealt with some kind of creepy activity in their home.

 

The movie was a huge success, horror audiences loved it and as the Saw franchise was winding down it appeared thatParanormal Activity may be the new look of horror fims.

 

I didn’t see it until 2010, for free, from my local library.

 

Having been a dedicated fan of horror from my youngest years, this movie just seemed to be more of the same style of horror I had been seeing since The Blair Witch Project ten years earlier.  My personal opinion was that “…the first film was a lot of fun in a sort of Blair Witch Project vein, and there were more than a few scares throughout – without going into spoilers I will say that the movie is worth a watch, but maybe only if you can watch it on TV or get it cheap.”

 

Then, just like the Saw franchise, Paranormal Activity 2 came out in October of the next year (2010) and we were treated to an interesting prequel/sequel (which I reviewed here)

 

Now a few weeks back I watched Paranormal Activity 3, which follows the female leads from both previous films in a definite prequel, taking place nearly 20 years before the events of the first two films.

 

Again, I saw these free from my local library (which is how I recommend anyone should watch them), but it’s fair to say my favourite character in the franchise is Kristi, played in the second film by Sprague Grayden and as a child in the three-quel by Jessica Tyler Brown.

 

What I like about Kristi in both films is just how real she comes across – in a lot of ways the more down-to-earth a character is in a horror story, the more scary the story becomes, because the character is so easy to relate to for the audience.

 

My problem with the films as a whole, is that they start out showing you one thing, then saying it’s another (clever), and then the second film, although using a recognizable actress for its lead (bad choice in a found-footage style film, even if the actress is great), plays with both the format of prequels and sequels in general (more clever), the third film basically explains exactly what was going on and also seems to have a problem with grandmothers.

 

Yup – in the end the message received is “Don’t trust friendly Grandmothers.”

 

Now I know that a fourth film is on its way, and when it’s free I’ll probably check it out, but honestly, horror works best when there is an unknown to be afraid of – not when every possible back-story is examined for potential shock moments.