November 16, 2008: Saw V
OK, I admit it – I’m a sucker for this stuff. I first encountered Saw at the Toronto International Film Festival just as “torture porn” was getting off the ground in its early 2000s go-around, and I’ve stuck with the franchise because I think the basic concept is very compelling. The implementation in the sequels/prequels often leaves much to be desired, and if the original perpetrator is ever completely cut out of the stories in the future, then I’ll probably give up on the series. However, for a guy who was on his death bed at the start of the first film, the villain “Jigsaw” still seems to have managed to (halfway) credibly show up in all four sequels, and not in the unexplained-undead way that Jason Voorhees clomped and slashed through a dozen or so Friday the 13th movies, when Jason was already dead even before the start of the first film.
The basic concept of the Saw movies is that ostensibly innocent people find themselves unexpectedly waking up in filthy dungeon-like conditions, and are usually forced to immediately deal with some complex mechanical trap to which the term “Rube Goldberg” clearly applies. They must make a critical decision to keep the trap from killing them, and it usually involves some physical sacrifice from their own body, which is related to a specific indiscretion or vice their tormentor disagrees with. Usually, the victims are somehow loosely connected. So we’ve got moral lessons being taught in an immoral way, which provides plenty of gore, but it’s all for a reason, and who’s good and who’s bad isn’t as clear-cut as we’d like.
I may sound defensive at this point. These films seem to have been demonized as a public lightning rod for the hatred of increasing senseless gore and violence in movies, exemplified also in the Hostel series and in numerous “groups of youths in an exotic place being chased and killed” movies such as Rest Stop or Eden Lake. But as I say, the core idea behind the Saw films – that some self-declared moral compass is trying to teach people the value of life by having them make a sacrifice to atone for their sins, and have the chance to live and appreciate their second chance – is a good one, and one which provides plenty of material for these later films to delve into the back story and later apprentices to the master.
Now, that brings us to the current entry, Saw V, which pushes the boundaries of convoluted messes. There’s a cop who has been pursuing the Jigsaw cases for years and becomes wrapped up a little to deeply in the latest episode. There’s a group of 5 loosely connected potential victims who exhibit the requisite rash thinking to make the tensely-timed traps keep the torture coming at regular intervals. And Jigsaw himself is seen in even more flashbacks than in the previous films, but still kind of making the same point as always. Maybe we don’t need another installment in this series every Halloween.
On the other hand, this film explains more of the history of Jigsaw, as well as how he has managed to be so prolific in his work, since it’s obvious that even with fully detailed plans and traps, lots of money and time are required to put together the physical setups. And the little twists in the histories of the characters always add something, even if the sum of the parts doesn’t quite add up to what it should be.
As can be seen, I’m conflicted about whether I like these movies or don’t like them. For now, I’ll continue to devote an hour and a half per year to see where they go.
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