Saw: Blood, guts and torture porn …

17th December, 2010

You know, I’ve got to admit, I’m not to happy, at the moment.

I’ve just found out my hours for next week.

And I’m not especially impressed.

I think the less said the better, there: but ‘not especially impressed’ is definitely the phrase, I think.

At any rate, suffice to say, I’ve got the weekend off, so to try and do something productive … ?

And make use of the late night … ?

I’m going to tell you about the film that Movie Night Adrian and I managed to catch, last night …

The film in question … ?

Was the smash — and gruesome — 2004 hit, Saw.

And, as Adrian, himself, manage to point out … ?

It’s the first any of us in the Movie Night Gang have managed to catch a horror film that’s that blood-soaked … !

«•»

Saw opens by showing us two men — oncologist, Lawrence Gordon, played by Cary Elwes, and photographer Adam Faulkner-Stanheight, played by Leigh Whannell — trapped in what appear to be an industrial bathroom: with each chained to pipes on opposite sides of the room.

With a dead body in between them.

They’ve been kidnapped.

And been given instructions by their kidnapperª — on dictaphone — to kill the other, within six hours.

Going by the very new clock on the wall, that’s visible to both.

«•»

Now, I was grouching, earlier, when I said I was more impressed by this, than by other events, today … ?

True.

But I’ve also got to admit that I feel Saw is an easy film to be impressed by.

Now, I’ve not seen the rest of the entries in the franchise, although lord knows there’s enough of them.

I’ve not seen them: but have heard the series maintains its quality.

Either way, whether the latter films in the franchise are any good is neither here nor there, from where I’m sitting.

The original Saw … ?

Is an entertainingly blood-thirsty, gruesome film, with twisty turns galore. One with a central villain* the like of which is certainly on a par with Anthony Hopkins take on Hannibal Lecter: at least, certainly having more brains — and better motivation — than your run-of-the-mill slasher.

In my opinion … ?

That makes the original Saw well worth the money.

★★☆☆

* Just as a footnote, the little mannequin thing — ventriloquist dolly, I should say — is one of the way’s the killer shows himself to his victims. And deeply symbolic of the way he uses them as puppets …

ª The police investigating the case refer to the killer as Jigsaw or the Jigsaw Killer, for his habit of cutting out a jigsaw piece shaped lump of his flesh.