Monday, November 12, 2007
The second horror film I saw at the weekend was "Saw IV".
There will beblood sorry, spoilers, re. some of the previous films, so if you want to skip this post, I will forgive you.
I liked "Saw" and "Saw II". I thought that they were tight, nasty, gory, ingenious little horror films. True, at heart they were nothing more than superior torture porn, but gruesomely entertaining nevertheless. People much cleverer than me will write volumes about why some people find violence and horror so entertaining, and I have thoughts on that, but those thoughts can wait for another time.
About a year ago I saw "Saw III". At the time I wrote that I liked it, but in retrospect I would admit that "Saw III" was probably not as good as the first two films. At the end of my little review I wrote the following.
'The ending of "Saw III" is setup nicely for a sequel, but maybe it will be one movie too many?'
One movie too many? Maybe. Either way, I thought that "Saw IV" was the weakest entry in the series so far because of the lack of clarity in the plot, the really confusing and fragmented telling of the story and the fact that the viewer needed an encyclopedic knowledge of the first three films to make head or tails of what was going on. I would imagine that a punter coming in off the street to watch this film, having not seen any of the other films, would be absolutely sunk. Sometimes exposition is needed, especially in a second sequel.
True, there were some good ideas in "Saw IV". With the death of Jigsaw and his assistant Amanda at the end of "Saw III", it was interesting the direction that the filmmakers took. I liked the way that they chose to investigate the motivations of Jigsaw, showing flashbacks to his life, his relationships and the sequence of events that turned him into a serial killer with a moral purpose. I also liked the devilish (final?) set of traps, set to ensnare unsuspecting victims even after his death. (My favourite was the scalping machine. Eeek! If I had more hair I would be holding onto it now.)
Hang on a minute! I think I have just convinced myself that "Saw IV" was not all that bad after all, but, please-please-please the writer(s) of "Saw V" (an inevitable prospect?), give the script a good rewrite before going into production. Simplicity is the key. I cannot afford to scratch my head through another "Saw" film. I haven't got enough hair.
There will be
I liked "Saw" and "Saw II". I thought that they were tight, nasty, gory, ingenious little horror films. True, at heart they were nothing more than superior torture porn, but gruesomely entertaining nevertheless. People much cleverer than me will write volumes about why some people find violence and horror so entertaining, and I have thoughts on that, but those thoughts can wait for another time.
About a year ago I saw "Saw III". At the time I wrote that I liked it, but in retrospect I would admit that "Saw III" was probably not as good as the first two films. At the end of my little review I wrote the following.
'The ending of "Saw III" is setup nicely for a sequel, but maybe it will be one movie too many?'
One movie too many? Maybe. Either way, I thought that "Saw IV" was the weakest entry in the series so far because of the lack of clarity in the plot, the really confusing and fragmented telling of the story and the fact that the viewer needed an encyclopedic knowledge of the first three films to make head or tails of what was going on. I would imagine that a punter coming in off the street to watch this film, having not seen any of the other films, would be absolutely sunk. Sometimes exposition is needed, especially in a second sequel.
True, there were some good ideas in "Saw IV". With the death of Jigsaw and his assistant Amanda at the end of "Saw III", it was interesting the direction that the filmmakers took. I liked the way that they chose to investigate the motivations of Jigsaw, showing flashbacks to his life, his relationships and the sequence of events that turned him into a serial killer with a moral purpose. I also liked the devilish (final?) set of traps, set to ensnare unsuspecting victims even after his death. (My favourite was the scalping machine. Eeek! If I had more hair I would be holding onto it now.)
Hang on a minute! I think I have just convinced myself that "Saw IV" was not all that bad after all, but, please-please-please the writer(s) of "Saw V" (an inevitable prospect?), give the script a good rewrite before going into production. Simplicity is the key. I cannot afford to scratch my head through another "Saw" film. I haven't got enough hair.
Labels: Movies
# posted by Pynchon @ 9:35 pm 
