Horrific Inquiry: SAW (2004)

Welcome back to the scariest, and at times goriest, column here at Film Inquiry: Horrific Inquiry. Twice a month, I will be tackling all things horror, bringing two films back into the spotlight to terrify and frighten once more. And occasionally looking at those that could have pushed the envelope further. Join us as we dive deep into the heart of horror, but warning, there will be spoilers.

“Make your choice. Lie or die”.- Saw 2004

There are horror movies that stick with you through the years. For a plethora of reasons, these horrors become gems in an internal collection of favorites and cinematic memories. For me, Saw stands as one of these gems. I remember watching the film alone in my college dorm. I remember gagging as Cary Elwes, who up until this point had always predominately been Wesley from The Princess Bride, saw through his ankle. I remember the visceral feeling of disgust, yet horrific fascination as this narrative devised with plot twists and unrelenting mystery unraveled before me.

This was the first film of the “torture porn” subgenera I had ever seen – and I was hooked. Since Scream, slashers had always been my horror of choice, but this delivered a new level of terror and gore. It was unapologetically violent, all with the compounding twisty tale it wanted to tell. And while far from new in a subgenera of splatter films, Saw would introduce audiences to a new direction of film that would give way to Hostel, Martyrs, The Collector and many others, even spawning its own theories within film studies revolving a post- 9/11 cinematic world.

With the upcoming release of the franchise’s newest induction, the story of John “Jigsaw” Kramer – and his devote followers – continues once again. And with the added excitement surrounding the return of Tobin Bell and Shawnee Smith it only felt right that this month, Horrific Inquiry return to the beginning.

“You’re not dead”

What I was most surprised about was how much I didn’t remember, and how much the memories I did have of Saw were drastically different during my rewatch. It had been some time since I have returned to the beginning of this diabolical franchise, always present for the latest installment but rarely returning to where it all began. What I was most shocked to discover was how little gore the original film really has. Horrific for the time, the franchise’s sequels and subsequent “torture porn” films has truly pushed the envelope in the decade’s since Saw‘s release.

Where many of the subsequent Saw films would open to a victim trapped and made to choose between life or death, Saw has a more subtle opening, a man waking up in dark submersed in a bath tub, a small floating light illuminating the tight shot. As the man awakens, we are plunged into darkness, the light sucked down the drain. There is an immediate confusion, a voice emanating from the darkness “you’re not dead”.

As the light in the room is turned on, both camera and subject are seemingly blinded by the light, the pain disorientating and harsh. The camera remains wide, revealing the two men on opposing sides of the room, a third man between them in a pool of blood. It is a shocking moment, viewers thrust into the same confusion as the men on screen. In what will become a staple of Saw filming, the camera raises upward, spinning in a continuously disorienting fashion. Immediately heightening the intensity of the confusion on screen, we get a fast paced look at the man in the pool of blood and the room around, this style of filming capturing the chaos of the mind and giving viewers the first representational sense that there is always more to the picture.

Escaping the timeline

As Adam (Leigh Whannell) and Gordon (Cary Elwes) work to figure out what is happening, the film begins to take on an escape room feeling. Chained to the poles nearest to them, Adam and Gordon are confined to the length of their chains, left to figure out clues to the reason of their capture. Discovering small recorded tapes in their pockets, they manage to retrieve the cassette player in the dead man’s hand. As both audiences and victims discover, they are there in repayment for their crimes – one the crime of voyeurism, the other unfaithfulness. Yet, while they are each given a potential punishment, they are each also given a choice to correct their wrongs setting the test into motion.

While the film primarily focuses on the tests of Gordon and Adam, it works to give the universe of Saw its initial breadth. This is not just a random psycho that has chained these two men in a dirty basement, but rather a meticulously calculated serial killer constantly alluding police at every turn. And Adam and Gordon are not his first victims. The film is structured perfectly as a standalone horror, yet weaves multiple avenues for expansion of the universe through sequels and spin offs.

In a skewed and broken timeline, the film alternates between the past and the present, slowly working as a crime mystery with a twisting surprise at every turn. There are the previous murders that supersede the tests of Adam and Gordon, the lack of gore truly astonishing during this rewatch. Much of my memories have been influenced by the increasing violent sequels that would follow, the murders here only shown in their aftermath and a break down of their tests. It speaks to the subsequent desensitization that occurs with each new film that follows.

With the introduction of previous murders, audiences become familiar with obsession-driven Detective David Tapp (Danny Glover) and his ill-fated partner Detective Steven Sing (Ken Leung), both eventual victims of the Jigsaw killer. Their investigation becomes interwoven with Dr. Gordon, a pen light left at one of the crime scenes making Dr. Gordon a primary suspect. The alternation between past and present heightens the mystery, rather than the gore, that surrounds the predicament of Adam and Gordon.

This is not to say Saw does not have any gore. Yes, the early murders leave much for your mind to fill in, as does Amanda’s (Shawnee Smith) test, the film does not shy away from blood, even if it lacks on presumed mutilation. Yet, with each killing, the violence and gore heightens, becoming its own symphony of brutality, crescendoing to the epic conclusion of Gordon sawing off his foot.

Conclusion:

Based on the short film directed by James Wan and written by Leigh Whannell of the same name, Saw draws from its roots to deliver an epically intense and unforgettable display of violence and horror. Where many of the filming techniques carry over from the short to the film here, Saw‘s most memorable scene with Amanda comes directly from the short. There was a clear direction of horror from the very beginning, and while at times you can feel the extended world outside of the dilapidated bathroom added on, cohesively this is a film that was designed to grow.

This can be further stated in its ending. Having been driven to a sense of madness as he hears his family fighting for their lives and following the removal of his foot, Gordon drags himself from the room, promising Adam he would return with help. Moments after Gordon disappears, both Adam and audience members become engulfed by the swell of Charlie Clouser‘s iconic score, a motif that would later help define a franchise. As the motif rises, so does the body on the floor, the film revealing that Jigsaw was always in sight. As John Kramer, the patient from earlier in the film, stands, audiences will find themselves as stunned as Adam, a moment of hope delivered as he tells Adam that the key to his chain is in the bathtub.

Yet Saw is far from done with its audience, a flashback to the light in the bathtub revealing that the key went down the drain with it. There is a sickening feeling as we watch Jigsaw slam the door to the bathroom closed, his prophecy that Adam will watch himself die unless he does something coming true.

While Saw may not be as gore-induced as once remembered, the film works well to utilize every tool in its horrific arsenal. From filming style to a twisty narrative structure, Saw is a film that not only bore a franchise but has retained itself as a true horror classic.

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