Franchise Retrospective: SAW

For a while there I was seriously thinking that I'd be able to post reviews every Thursday and essayistic opinion pieces every Tuesday, but here I am Thursday night with nothing really interesting to review. I did indeed watch stuff I have thoughts on but I'm doing this bi-weekly blog thing to write about things I'm interested in and excited about I'll give in to the drudgery of writing about things that don't interest and excite me as soon as someone wants to pay me to do it. Ah well I think I'll do a franchise retrospective... Yeah that can be a recurring feature here that sounds like fun. But where to start? Something long easy to talk about and maybe slightly controversial...OOH Like how the Saw franchise is an intricately plotted crime drama that only gets good after the 3rd movie!
Ok lets get some things out of the way first. The Saw films are NOT masterpieces and part of their draw is the creative gore, and thematically appropriate torture devices Jigsaw employs against his victims. But that's only about half the story. Repeatedly I've seen the Saw franchise referred to as horror films, and while I suppose that isn't inaccurate a more accurate genre would be crime drama. The emphasis in Saw is just as much, if not more so on its plot and characters which are intricately woven into a consistent and intricate series mythology

Saw (2004) is a small independent production about two guys trapped in an escape room. It's an exceedingly well written character drama wherein two people who do not know or trust each other and are given reason to distrust each other must work together to escape. We don't initially know much about these characters, but learn about them as the movie progresses and the reason for their situation is put together. During this we also see Detective Tapp's attempts to track down the Jigsaw killer in a police procedural type B-plot. What makes this film so successful is that it brings it's differing plot threads (the trapped characters personal histories, Tapp's investigation, and the puzzles of the escape room itself) together in a seamless cohesive way. It's a perfectly tightly plotted film. Not a single word, cut, sound or image is wasted and all works toward a tense (and surprisingly largely bloodless) surprise conclusion. This was by necessity as the movie was made on a shoe string budget and everything down to the rapid fire editing (employed in some places to cover for the lack of exterior establishing shots) and the primary cast of just two characters was cost conscious in intent. You'll note I didn't at all mention gore, or traps or any of that, and that's because this first Saw movie has very little of that. What violence needed to occur was done off largely off screen because they didn't have the budget for such effects.

This wasn't the case for Saw II (2005). The sequel ups the ante in just about every aspect while maintaining the same basic structure. Instead of 2 people in a room it's eight people in a house, and instead of an investigation to find the Jigsaw killer, they find him and corner him in the first 10-20 minutes. We learn he is John Kramer and this is where the franchise mythology starts. John Kramer is given a basic backstory: a cancer patient, who, after attempting suicide feels some people don't appreciate the life they're given so puts them in situations to make them appreciate life more. This simple backstory will get incredibly complex and interesting in future movies. What is more interesting about the scenes where John Kramer is expositing is Tobin Bell. Tobin Bell is the only reason there have been 8 Saw movies. His screen presence is so powerful and infectiously entertaining that his performance as John Kramer supported the franchise for 7 years straight. If you have not seen any of his performance here's a montage. Anyway Saw II is really only important to the franchise as it set up the formula for the rest of the movies to follow: a police investigation that reveals more of John Kramer's backstory, and the trap scenes which provide a ticking clock for the police investigation as well as add a bit of spectacle.

Saw III (2006) so in Saw III John Kramer dies. He is murdered at the end of the film as part of a conclusion to one of his twisted games. The police investigation half of this film isn't really a police investigation but rather focuses on the relationship between John Kramer and his protege, Amanda. Revealed at the end of the second movie to be working for Jigsaw Amanda is a former victim who supposedly believes in John's "rehabilitation" methods. But she in fact creates traps that the victims can't survive believing that these people are beyond helping. The whole movie builds up to the reveal that it was all Amanda's test to begin with to see if she would be capable of following in John Kramer's footsteps. A test she fails and is therefore killed. The movie also shows us John Kramer has a wife. This is all laying the ground work for Saw's IV, V, and VI.

In Saw IV(2007) the franchise starts playing with time. It opens with John Kramer's autopsy shown in excruciating detail. This is probably one of the most intelligent scenes in the entire franchise. They want you to know that John Kramer is dead  and is never coming back at the same time delivering the gruesome spectacle the franchise is now known for. This is smart because it forces the writers to stick to their guns and keep John Kramer dead. Inside his corpse a Detective Hoffman finds a tape encased in wax hinting at a new game. Peter Strahm and Linsey Perez are investigating the murders and find that there must be another protege other than Amanda running round. During their investigation to find where Jigsaw's current game is they learn about and interrogate John's wife Jill Tuck, and learn more about his personal history and motives. Jill was pregnant but suffered a miscarriage due to the careless actions of a drug addict at the clinic where she worked. This contributed to John's suicide attempt motivating his violent actions. Whats coolest about Saw IV is that its revealed to take place at the same time as III and everything after the autopsy was a flashback. As for detective Hoffman he's revealed to be the other protege and the Saw killings continue.

Saw V (2008) inverts the police investigation idea by focusing on Hoffman's attempts to stay ahead of the Strahm's investigation into the Saw killings with flashbacks to how Hoffman fell in with Saw. To be honest that really is about it. The trap sequences have a unique gimmick where the 5 victims all contributed maliciously to an arson case and must work together to survive the traps. Of course they don't and most of them die. I think it's no coincidence that this, the second weakest of the franchise, focuses more on the traps and the trap victims than John Kramer (who is the real star of this franchise).

Saw VI (2009) Puts the focus back on John Kramer detailing in flashbacks how an insurance company refused to cover his experimental cancer treatment, and the trap scenes focus on the executive of said company. Also we get tension between Hoffman and Jill Tuck. It turns out that in his will John Kramer left instructions for Jill to test Hoffman. Which Hoffman failed due to manipulating Amanda into failing her test. He survives but only barely.

Saw VII (2010) This is it the perfect end to the franchise. This is practically a Saw fan film but actually canon. The trap sequences are a really fun idea where a charlatan who has made a ton of money off a book detailing the (fabricated) story of how he survived a Jigsaw game is made to actually go through a game for real. Showing John Kramer's pride that he won't allow someone to make money off his work is a really fun turn for the character. As for the ongoing drama between Hoffman and Tuck. Hoffman is still trying to stay ahead of the law, while also trying to kill Jill who is trying to kill him. There is so much going on in this movie it's difficult to summarize. It's overwhelming, but at the end of it all Jill is killed, and Hoffman is captured... by one of the characters from the first film who was secretly a Jigsaw apprentice all along explaining actually quite a bit of how Kramer was able to accomplish some of the surgical feats he managed.

The franchise maintained narrative consistency throughout all these seven films and never once contradicts itself. Which is super impressive given that there was no grand plan and they were written in less then a year as soon as the previous film was released. This was broken by Saw 8: Jigsaw (2017). I really don't want to get into it but it introduces another secret apprentice from even before the timeline of the first film and has quite a few technological anachronisms. It really is the worst of the franchise. Its shot and edited in a boring straightforward manner not at all the manic rapid editing of the original 7 films, and came off as such.

So I managed to give a brief overview of all 8 Saw films for a reason. I didn't ONCE mention any of the traps in detail or any of the narratives attached to them (baring Saw V) and yet I only managed to pack maybe about 3/4ths of the important plot points. Saw is a far more complex franchise than people give it credit for. It's about half torture porn and half intricate crime drama with both aspects being executed beautifully. I don't expect this to convince anyone of the movies' quality but I do hope it makes at least one person curious enough to check out the franchise.