Website and all contents thereof property of Maren Wasser
Contact me - marensdasein@gmail.com
I just heard that Saw XI after hitting some production trouble in 2024 is rumored to be completely dead. If you've followed me from my social media platforms you may be aware I have a great deal of affection for the franchise. It is a wild achievement that it released 7 entries in 7 years with an internally consistent series mythology, survived 2 attempts at a soft reboot (that ALSO didn't completely contradict the lore) that utterly failed, and still managed a legacy sequel that was actually a midquel and was also the best entry in the series (at least since the first). Not only that, but at the franchise's heart is one of the most underrated acting performances in film history. Tobin Bell is UNPARALLELED. He has played John Kramer/Jigsaw across 8 films and every time delivers an award worthy performance full of menace and credibility. It is only the franchise's (admittedly somewhat deserved) reputation for preferencing gory spectacle over all else that holds Tobin Bell back from the accolades he deserves.
I also think the franchise's reputation is a bit overblown. Contrary to popular belief Saw isn't “torture porn” and neither are its sequels. The first film is a psychological thriller, it isn’t gratuitously gruesome, and it serves as a look at how people react and break down in high pressure situations. The sequels while more gruesome also have more going on than just gore. Not saying they've got much meaningful to say, but rather the torture scenes only comprise a third to half of each film. The rest is a crime thriller themed soap opera. Like Days of Our Lives if they were all cops and serial killers. This arose organically as a result of how the franchise was written. There was no grand series plan. Each film was written with little consideration for what the next would be about, and the scripts would typically be started the day after the prior movie released. Also, the first film set a precedent that each film would end with a shocking reveal that would contextualize the events of the film. So this led to a very complicated, frequently non-linear, overarching narrative with mistaken identities, double crosses, secret accomplices, petty revenge… plans within plans. The craziest part is it all makes some kind of sense if you follow it from Saw to Saw X.
Of course the devious traps and devices are also part of the appeal, and where a lot of the filmmakers’ passion is invested. Starting with the third film Jigsaw’s “games” frequently involved complicated devices that the victims were strapped into or that were strapped on them that would kill them if they were unable to retrieve a key or accomplish a task. These elaborate rube-goldberg esque “traps” were as creative as they were cruel, and given the filmmakers were working with limited budgets in the ‘00s; they all had to be built to function more or less as shown. There is very little in the way of smoke and mirrors in the appearance and function of Jigsaw’s traps. It's impressive and appeals to both the satisfaction of seeing a mechanism operate smoothly, and that morbidly curious part of the audience’s psyche that wants to see the gory violence.
The Saw franchise has also garnered a bit of an unfair reputation for being morally incoherent. John Kramer’s moral philosophy is incoherent, but Kramer is the bad guy. At no point does anyone not connected to Jigsaw assert that he is anything but a particularly elaborate serial killer, and it's worth mentioning Jigsaw's “treatment” to make people appreciate their lives has a 0% success rate. Not a single victim who survives one of Kramer’s games actually goes on to lead a better life. Usually, they wind up an accomplice and are later shown to have learned nothing in the cases of Hoffman (who perverts Kramer's already broken philosophy to take personal revenge on people) and Amanda (who kicks her drug addiction but takes up self-harm as another form of self-destruction). Most of Jigsaw's victims just wind up dead. Hardly the narrative of a movie franchise that wants to suggest that suffering and torture lead to appreciating life more. I could go into more detail speculating about Kramer’s psychology and how he may see the people around him as blind to their “karmic privilege” and are squandering it on vices; when he has lived what he sees as a morally upstanding life but forced to take on so much suffering, but that would be a whole essay unto itself. Suffice to say John Kramer’s methods to “help” people aren't meant to be seen by the audience as legitimate. They're the product of a broken man who was dealt a series of bad hands and played them worse.
It's a little weird to think of such a successful film franchise as “underrated” but that's how I feel about it. While wildly popular and successful in their day, once Paranormal Activity came out (a crime I will never forgive) and stole Saw’s Halloween top spot, the franchise basically vanished from the zeitgeist. I hope something I've said above ignites some interest in visiting or revisiting the franchise. It really is a unique accomplishment in horror film, and better than a lot of people give it credit for. Finally, I will close out this little retrospective with a ranking best to worst (according to my personal preference):