 |
| Now that I got that terrible visual pun out of the way..... |
I'm going to review this movie, along with the future ones this month, in the style that I did in my Batman blog, as I won't go into detail as to the actual plot. I'll leave that up to you to watch it, or look it up on Wikipedia. I'll be making reference as to what I thought of it the first time I watched it, to what I think of it now.
Back then.....
*the last two minutes of the film* What.....the.....FUCK?????
And today.....
This film is still one of my favourite horror movies of all time. Even after yearly viewings when it gets to the stage where you question various parts of the movie, when in context to the rest of the series, and especially the part where Cary Elwes saws off his own foot. I mean, why didn't he just take off his shirt and use it to drag the phone over to him, instead of using it for his self dismemberment procedure.
Despite being bugged by these small flaws, these are just nitpicking on my part, and they do not take away the same feeling I had when I first watched it. It's a clever horror which adds elements of a thriller, mystery, hints of dark humour, and a claustrophobic atmosphere with minimal surroundings and onscreen cast. Its low budget style and strong script is reminiscent of "Reservoir Dogs", and its use of colour, especially during Jigsaw's "games", has become synonymous with the series itself, and has since been imitated (see "Punisher: War Zone" for example.....and if you never seen it, go see "Punisher: War Zone", it's awesome).
 |
| No no no, I mean the one that didn't have John Travolta dancing, and Kevin "Diesel" Nash. |
The characters are well portrayed, with the exception of Cary Elwes' wife in the movie, played by Monica Potter. I don't know if she ever had any plastic surgery, but her facial expression is non expressive, and it looks like she's always pissed off in whatever movie she's in. Over the years it's funny to see two actors in the movie that ended up on the TV series "Lost"; Benjamin Linus (don't know the actor's name off hand, but he played Zep) and that Asian actor who was also in X-Men: Last Stand (who I called "The Prick" as I never knew the mutant's name, only that he can spontaneously become a human hedgehog).
Another element of the film which has become a staple of the series throughout is, as you can tell from the "back then" section, is the plot twist. I rented this movie a few months before the release of the sequel, and viewed it with someone I used to be friends with. We both did the usual "I bet he's the killer" predictions at the beginning, and we did settle on Zep. But when Adam (Leigh Whannell) starts playing the tape recorder in Zep's pocket, I was suddenly confused, along with my (former) friend.
In those few seconds before the final reveal, I was racking my brain as to who was even left in the film. All the characters were ruled out, even those who were suspected at one time or another, and it couldn't possibly be any of the victims or hostages. As I watched the screen while trying to figure out who "Jigsaw" could be.....well, the revelation as to who was behind it was surreal in itself, which left a huge impact as soon as the words "Game Over" were uttered, along with the sound of screaming once the credits rolled.
From that point on, the plot twist has become my favourite part of the sequels, more so than the elaborate traps. While the impact of the revelation will never be replicated on repeated viewings, I will always remember how I felt with each ending in the series. With that in mind, I tend to concentrate more on the other aspects of the movie, such as the subtle hints made by the villain throughout the movie, which are sampled during the end sequence, and certain scenes which link the movies as a whole.
 |
| On a sidenote, I am also a fan of Charlie Clouser's work on the soundtrack. |
As with most movie franchises, the first one is usually the best. And with Saw, not only is it the best out of all the films in the series, it also works as a stand alone film. There are some people who say the sequels never lived up to the one that started it all, and I can see why people would have a problem with continuing the storyline, or the quality of the films that followed.
To me though, the SAW series is kind of a throwback to the classic 80s horror franchises such as Friday 13th, Halloween and ...Elm St., where the first movie is lauded by many, but anything else after that is hit and miss. Nowadays movie franchises never get as far as the third movie, whether it be a continuing storyline, or a series of prequels related to the original franchise. It seems that horror movie franchises are the only ones that dare to go past the third movie (even the Scary Movie franchise is going into its fifth installment, even though some of those films can be horrifying for the wrong reasons).
I'm sure people would argue with my choice as the best horror movie franchise, but I only got to see the likes of Elm St, Halloween, Friday 13th et al, when I was in my mid to late teens, and I heard so much about these movies from the likes of other kids in school when I was younger. I'm sure if I grew up watching them, either from being born a few years earlier, or managed to have an older sibling who owned the movies, I'd probably come up with a different point of view. But as it is, these movies came out when I was in my twenties, so I was old enough to watch them, and enjoyed them while they were still being released periodically.
That said, if I was to recommend the SAW movies to anyone who never seen them, I would highly recommend that they watch the first one. As for the sequels, whether they want to continue on, or just leave it at the first movie, I wouldn't sway them eitherway. I'd let them "make their choice".
And on a final note.....
This video was also one of the extra features on the Saw DVD. Fear Factory are one of my favourite bands, and the album of which this song is from ("Archetype") is also a really good album. Great band, great album.....and hell, great movie.
No comments:
Post a Comment