SAW (Wan, 2004)

The SAW franchise is something that I initially resisted. From what I could tell, the choppy, MTV-inspired music video editing was overly-stylish and juvenile. The fact that its chief audience was mindless teenagers didn't help matters. But in 2005, there was not a lot of horror fare to choose from when October rolled around. Brandie and I actually went to see THE FOG in theatres, simply because it was the only genre picture in cinemas at the time. So SAW II seemed like a godsend, something that wasn't PG-13 and would be a good October Movie. I wasn't expecting much, but SAW II was far from a watered-down sequel set to cash in on the success of the original. The violence was gritty and realistic, just like my favorite horror films. I enjoyed it, despite the fact that the flashy cuts and generally bad acting took me out of it at some points. SAW II is a rare case of a whole being greater than the sum of its parts. The film fearlessly threw a helpless ex-heroin addict into a bit of syringes; amazing, I thought, and not at all what I was expecting. Graphic and grim in tone, SAW II was a pleasure.

It took me a whole year to get around to the original. I watched the uncut special edition. Since I never saw SAW in cinemas, I can't say what was cut for the theatrical release, but there is some truly explicit imagery which, according to director James Wan, was not supposed to be there at first. It seems as if the initial aim of the film was to be a "psychological thriller" along the lines of THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS or SEVEN. It's always nice to see young directors ditch that slightly-pretentious, high-faluting room and just make a straight up nihilistic horror film. This of course also refers to people like Michael Heneke, who make horror films that ultimately seek to mock the genre and the audience. The label "thriller" is just a respectable way of saying "horror movie", and in the mid-90s, essentially killed the horror picture. SCREAM changed all that, of course, but that's neither here nor there. The point is, James Wan, Leigh Wannell, and Darren Lynn Bousman are not afraid of getting blood on their hands and they're not afraid of making dark, horrific films where everyone dies. This is a good thing for the genre.

Yes, I tried my hardest to fight against the SAW series for a while, and now I have no memory of why I even bothered. They're all realistic and gory, and the original helped kick off the American return to the grindhouse aesthetic. (Although I'd like to think that HIGH TENSION, released in France in 2003, truly signalled the return, HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES unfortunately probably had just as much a direct influence, as well as THE TEXAS CHAINSAW remake (again, unfortunately).) Most of the reviews of the original that I read referenced SEVEN, making it seem like just another simple rip-off of that much-imitated Fincher film, but SAW is a lot more visceral than SEVEN. Also, despite some half-baked philosophical concepts running throughout about how people don't appreciate being alive, SAW never seems to take itself as seriously as SEVEN did. The trite FIGHT CLUBisms get old after a while, but I suppose a serial killer with an idealogy behind what he's doing is scarier than someone like Jason Vorhees or Fred Krueger, who are just unexamined, undead, killing-machine monsters.

Graphic violence and gore abound, and SAW definitely fullfills the first rule of the drive-in, which is, again, Anyone Can Die At Any Time. The SAW pictures are exercises in hysteria and bloody murder, and while the first one never achieves the pure nihilistic vision of the sequel, the sheer audacity and mayhem is ultimately satisfying. It's probably pointless to even place something this repulsive in a larger context, but fuck it, that's what I'm here for. It's impossible to watch something like SAW (or HOSTEL or THE DEVIL'S REJECTS or any of the other Splat Pack pics) and not see it as a reaction against the new puritianism. Our scripture-quoting, gun-slinging President isn't that far from one of Garth Ennis' homocidial creations, but what's always been scariest about him, to me anyway, is his undying, unblinking, unwavering devotion to the Guy On The Cross. While I don't doubt that many within his inner circle snicker at the cow-eyed masses, looking into Bush's stupid, stupid eyes, you cannot help but realize that he believes all this. I wouldn't be so offended by the notion of Christianity (indeed, I'd think them all mindless and boringly irrelevant) except that their primary religious text is being used to guide public policy. It's not just tits on television and the censorship of movies, it's also homosexual marriage and the right to abortion and contraceptives.

The SAW films stand in direct opposition to all of the ideas that Christianity (and, in turn, our Christian leadership) holds dear. And the fact that people are going in droves to see them is heartening and (I hope I hopeihope) a sign of a general turning away from the new puritanism. Long live the SAW. Can't wait for the third one.