“And here we have a shiny new example of how I’ve become a total slacker with the blog. A few weeks back, I saw that the complete set of Saw movies was on sale for too cheap to pass up. Seeing as how it had been a very long time since I’d done a blog mini project, and I’d never written up any movies in the series (hell, I’d only seen 2 of them and only once each), I thought it was perfect. Clearly it didn’t work out that way.
What happened is that I had a friend who was helping me with this year’s Halloween costume, and we thought this box set would make great background entertainment. It turns out, however, that listening to Saw in the background while actively working on things is very disturbing and you don’t really grasp too much of what’s going on that way. NBD, I can just rewatch them later. Except these movies really are so unsettling that it was gonna be a struggle to get thru them once. I was not about to rewatch them. So instead we’ve got one giant blog post talking about the whole seven movies at once.
Let’s go back to the very beginning, and see what got us into this mess of waiting so damn long to see these movies. I remember watching the original back in my college dorm room. I have never felt such a strong visceral reaction to a film. I walked out of my room shaking, hoping to find a friend on the hall because I desperately needed some positive social interaction. Yes, me, queen of the macabre had met her match, and I loved it.
About six months later, I saw a blurb in EW announcing a set of upcoming sequels that were planned. One tiny little sentence buried in the magazine. I had a very gnarly nightmare that night about being in Jigsaw’s traps. I only get nightmares occassionally, and they’ve never been the direct result of me watching something (I’ve been known to fall asleep watching horror flicks or other psychologically disturbing movies). I refused to watch any of the sequels. It wasn’t until last year when I got Saw II from that video store that closed (remember that, loyal readers?) that I continued.
Fast fowarding back to this year (and a warning that things may get vaguely spoilery), I got thru about half of the series that first day, and finished it off over the subsequent week. Since I didn’t make a point to blog each individually after watching, they all sort of blurred together. And really, after the first two, the stories sort of blur together. Events happen concurrently, and then flashback to different points, and it can be kinda tough to pull apart.
My main fascination with wanting to watch the full series was the traps. I’m a sucker for the concept of a diabolical game, and I really just wanted to know what all the set ups were. Obviously, some where more inventive than others, and ideas did start to wear thin as it went on. It also didn’t sit to well with me that in later games, there were seemingly innocent people who died as a result of the player’s choices. True, that’s mostly a symptom of a change from Jigsaw running the show to his proteges, but his whole philosophy was to test and punish the players. Killing people close to them that were uninvolved doesn’t fit with that. Still, I loved the reveal of each new set up and seeing how twisted they could get.
Oh another thing I’m a sucker for, the big twists at the end of each film with theme rising in the background. Even now, I can only play it in chunks before I feel too skived out.
I’m trying to think if I have a favorite trap, but none of them stand out to me individually. I liked the way that the main game flowed in V, with the realization of how it was meant to be played. I also like the visual of the carousel in VI. Oh and the needles in II is prolly the one that was most uncomfortable to watch. I don’t even have a fear of needles, it’s just an icky set up.
Now I’m consulting a list to refresh my memory and see if anything else jumps out. Nope, nothing worth adding to my list, just more of an icky feeling in my gut. Sweet dreams, gentle readers!”