Of the six grisly Saw films we sat through, fetishising violence, aggrandising intelligent serial killers and just maybe encouraging people to live more meaningful lives, the best was the first, with its grittiness, claustrophobia and firmly established space. Indeed, I still wish that the whole film had taken place within the room, like a play, rather than having flashbacks and police detective stories interwoven. The second expanded the concept to a full house, and while the mind-game and Jigsaw’s time onscreen made the sequel quite satisfying, all the running about, screaming and broad characterisation made the whole thing much more formulaic and unoriginal, less of a quirky psychological thriller than an action film with a clever ending, and unfortunately took the series is a direction I think suited it less well than a continuation of intimate studies of single, horrifying circumstances. The part with the key and the eye worked much better than I thought it would, though, in context. His eye was useless, so no magic was needed.
Saw III neatly went back over some of the first film’s scenes with an accuracy that would do Back to the Future proud. The Kramer character became somewhat deified as a medical drama unfolded, while a simultaneous storyline was a bit too generic to make an interesting second plot thread. It was a little hard to believe that Kramer would ever believe Amanda would pass his test, though. Saw IV’s bravura display was playing misleadingly with time, and the test this time was a pretty clever one, even if the game was totally lost. While the cleverness of IV’s timeline is impressive, though, a single scene in V made me stop to wonder if Jigsaw Junior, as I shall call him to avoid spoilers, received instructions for the five-person game from Kramer, quickly hurried down to be tied up in his chair, ran back up again at the end of that to close the door, dressed up as a pig, set up the failed water execution and then left the building with the little girl. That’s quite a day’s work!
V itself starts a cat and mouse game that is fairly interesting, although neither character has enough charisma to really provide much in the way of interest, and protagonist and antagonist look troublingly alike. It was quite good, having the five people and revealing the intended lesson, but the abrupt end to the film meant that the conclusion was quite unsatisfying, and we never really learned if the survivors really did survive.
Finally came the new film, Saw 6. The cat and mouse game reaches a conclusion, but it’s all too heavy-handed and over-obvious. The main game is spectacular and flamboyant, but it’s rather annoying when lives are just put in the hands of others, with no chances to save themselves. The tirade against the American healthcare system doesn’t strike me as such an amazing hook, either. The open ending wasn’t great for closure, and if Saw VII is in 3D…well, I probably will watch it now that I’ve sat through all of that, but I can’t see it really wowing audiences. They’re running out of minor characters and little open-ended questions about plot to fall back on.
Overall, I’m glad I went, and enjoyed it, not really ever feeling it was a hard slog. It was well worth the trip, and certainly a memorable cinema experience.
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