an ode to saw movies
If you had asked me even five years ago if I enjoyed Saw films, I would've told you: absolutely the hell not and keep it away from me!! And if you had told little high school freshman me that in my 30s I would be singing its praises, I'm sure she would've been perturbed. She was haunted for many, many years after a friend showed her Saw 4 against her will.
(In my 30s sounds sooo dramatic, but well, it's true...)
Something I've really come to love and appreciate about them is how utterly goofy and silly they actually are. Jigsaw is a theater kid, you cannot convince me otherwise! How else do you explain the sheer theater of it all! Billy the Puppet wears sparkling red flats. Each video that stars Billy the Puppet begins with him staring off to the side before turning dramatically to stare right at you. Camp!
Then there's the fact that each film in the series has to go to weirder and stranger lengths to make sense of the lore, since they killed off Jigsaw in the third movie. Each one is actually just a silly little police procedural with increasingly bizarre explanations to abide by earlier story beats. It has pretzeled itself into something that would absolutely not survive even the most minor amount of scrutiny.
After having rewatched them all for a second time now, I have to say I really detest the "torture porn" label these films haven't gotten stuck with. Those movies are genuinely not gory enough to satisfy the category. And, sure, they ARE gross, but isn't that the point of horror? To disgust, horrify, perturb, and scare you? Most of the characters put into these gruesome traps are probably not people you would sympathize with otherwise. Secondly, the gore is either minimized or just straight-up aggressively fake in these films. Something that helped me early on in my horror-exposure journey was reminding myself these people are actors on a set, holding prop body parts and fake blood. They are probably actually having a lot of fun making this! So I should have fun watching it! & you should too!!
If I had to recommend just one, it would easily be Six. (Ten is a close second). Saw 6 is all about a health insurance exec getting his just desserts, as well as his awful underlings he calls 'the Dog Pit.' This one also features my favorite saw trap: shotgun-merry-go-round. exactly as fun as you would imagine.
If you're on the fence, give them a try! I'm glad I did :-)