Saw (2004)
Saw is a film that genuinely baffles me. It’s a film from one of the premier horror directors of the ’00s and ‘10s, it was a lower budget picture, and it set off a trend in horror that we didn’t get away from until about 2014. Saw inspired the torture porn genre, which found massive success in the aughts, which is honestly bizarre to me, considering how mediocre the film is. The message is fake-deep, the acting isn’t great, and the gore is minimal. I tend to forget that James Wan directed this, because it’s so “meh” I have a lot of feelings about this film which range from baffled to irritated, so let’s get into it.
The film opens in a room of three people. We see a bloodied man on the floor, lying next to a gun and two men who are chained up on opposite sides of the room. They each have a tape in their pockets. The photographer, Adam, listens to the tape, which is urging him to escape while the doctor, Lawrence, is told to kill Adam to save his family from death. They also find two saws, which they realize are for cutting off their feet to escape. Torn, the two men attempt to understand why they have been given this test. It is soon revealed that Lawrence had been cheating on his wife. He is now being given a choice between his family and taking the life of a stranger. Despite not knowing who is testing him, Lawrence proves that he will do whatever it takes to save his family.
Now I’m going to discuss why I feel that this film was over-rated and explain why I experience a lot of confusion when thinking about this film’s influence and success. Okay. My gripes with Saw branch in three directions: why did it kick off torture porn from the original movie, the fake-deep message, and its lauding as a low-budget film.
Let’s start with the fake-deep message. The moral of Saw is basically that you must sacrifice and suffer to appreciate life. I don’t necessarily disagree with this concept, but I think this is such a pathetic way to try to share that message. It honestly seems like a “teen angst” philosophy. Like I have chronic illness/pain, and sure, I didn’t profoundly appreciate my health until it declined. BUT. The idea that someone must “choose” between life and death to truly enjoy life? I’d argue that the trauma people face after surviving Jigsaw’s traps would make life less enjoyable. Especially further along in the franchise when your survival means the death of another person? Not likely. All people make shitty choices and are ungrateful at some point in their life. I don’t think that should be a death sentence. As I said, this film’s message seems like it was written by a monster-fuelled teenage boy who’s surrounded by a cloud of smoke and thinks he’s the first person to realize that “everyone dies, but not everybody lives.” If you’re interested in the philosophical foundation of the saw franchise, Wisecrack made a cool video about it. I’m not even going to get into how the entire franchise proceeded to fuck up this philosophy even more as it continued.
My second complaint: the birth of 00s torture porn. While exploitation films had horrified generations past, Saw began the overuse of gore in horror, and I genuinely don’t understand why. There is a considerable leap in body horror from Saw to Saw II, and then each film in the franchise features more and more gore. But when looking at Saw, I didn’t see that much outlandish blood and guts. Sure cutting off a foot is gross, and the bathroom that the characters are locked in is gross, but how did THIS give birth to an entire decade of torture porn? If anything, I would argue that Eli Roth contributed more to body horror and torture porn with Hostel (2005) and Cabin Fever (2002). My only possible theory is that people took an interest in Jigsaw’s traps. Hence, the filmmakers decided to up the ante by increasing the complexity of the traps, thus increasing the levels of gore until that became what the franchise is recognized for. I’d love to hear some of your theories!
Okay, now a gripe that is kind of stupid and petty but irks me. So many people give saw props for being so “low-budget,” and SURE. It started that way. Wan and Wannell only had $30,00 when they created the first 7-minute short film. However, they sought out studio-financing and got it, raising their budget to $1-1.2 million in the end. And while I know that still constitutes a “low-budget” film, as anything under $2 million is considered low-budget, I don’t feel like they achieved some great feat considering their budget. When I think “low-budget,” I think of Night of the Living Dead or Halloween. Even when inflation is accounted for, their budgets were well below $1 million, and in my opinion, were far better done than Saw.
Ultimately, I think Saw was hugely influential in the horror films that have come after it. I think it’s worth watching as an essential film for the genre. If you aren’t a horror buff and are seeking out the film for sheer entertainment? I think your scares would be better found elsewhere. Ultimately I have kind of enjoyed watching the franchise collapse in on itself like a dying star. Still, I am excited to see the upcoming Chris Rock installation that is estimated to come in 2021.