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    SAW
    SAW
    SAW
    Ebook161 pages2 hours

    SAW

    By Ben Poole

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    Like all game changers within the horror genre, SAW was an independent success, a low-budget champion that flourished without the patronage of a big studio. Not bad for the most successful horror franchise ever, which has spawned subsidiary media and masses of merchandise, including a theme park rollercoaster ride. What is it about SAW that attracted such a following? In his contribution to the "Devil’s Advocates" series, Ben Poole considers the SAW phenomenon from all aspects of film and media studies from its generic pedigree in both literature and film, to the visceral audience pleasures ("what would I do?") of the text, to the contrasting representations of men and women and the film’s implicit criticism of masculinity.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAuteur
    Release dateJul 1, 2014
    ISBN9781906733971
    SAW

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      Book preview

      SAW - Ben Poole

      PRODUCTION

      BACKGROUND

      A distasteful idea…

      http://movies.nytimes.com/2007/10/27/movies/27saw.html

      … vile filth

      http://chicago.metromix.com/movies/movie_review/movie-review-saw-iv/243237/content

      … eyeball-poppingly repulsive sadism

      http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/oct/15/saw-horror-movie-franchise

      … cheerfully gruesome

      http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041028/REVIEWS/40923005/1023

      The first SAW feature film received its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004. The film was received with the sort of critical acclaim that is rare for a genre film; the director of the Sundance festival, Geoffrey Gilmore, opined proudly that the horror film was ‘bold, cleverly constructed and flat out terrifying’, but also that the film was instilled with a ‘moral seriousness’.³ It was a triumphant finale to what had been a turbulent production history. The film was initially conceived and filmed as a short by its creators, James Wan and Leigh Whannell, in order to create a ‘calling card’ for potential backers. The ten-minute mini-film was a version of a particularly gruesome scene from the final SAW screenplay: the short depicted Whannell, his head surrounded by a mechanical ‘bear trap’, searching through a comatose man’s stomach for the key to the cranial device (the scene would eventually feature Shawnee Smith in the Whannell role). The short was circulated around studios; Whannell and Wan’s initial aspirations were humble, hoping that the short would show enough promise to be developed into a direct-to-video feature. However, backers were suitably impressed, and the two received enough capital to expand SAW into a full-length cinema release.

      Wan and Whannell developed the SAW short into a feature for just $1,200,000, and after the Sundance premiere the expanded, finished film was bought by the independent studio Lionsgate to distribute worldwide. SAW’s success was global: it was released in every major territory (the Mexican title for the film is, brilliantly, Juego Macabro or The Macabre Game). The film went on to gross $103,096,345 worldwide, from an impressive Halloween opening weekend of $18,276,468.⁴ This is a princely profit for such a steadfastly ‘genre’ text and ensured that a sequel was inevitable; plans were made for a spin off when the opening weekend figures of SAW were announced. At the time of writing, there have been six sequels in the SAW series; as well as a comic book, a computer game, extensive merchandise, and even a rollercoaster ride, making SAW a bona-fide franchise. SAW is the most profitable of any film series, and, for half a decade, set a new paradigm in horror cinema.

      Screenwriter Leigh Whannell stars in the original SAW short

      Although the popularity of the SAW films has now dwindled from the heady box office of SAW III (which made Lionsgate $164,874,275 in 2009), niche audiences have consistently returned to follow the misadventures of Jigsaw each Halloween, and, in 2010, the franchise was inducted into the Guinness Book of Records as ‘the most successful horror movie series’.⁵

      HISTORY

      It is interesting to consider how such an apparently humble text as SAW, one that propagates such abject, extreme imagery, has caught the public imagination. Like other game-changing horror successes, such as The Night of the Living Dead (1968) or The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), or, most conspicuously, The Blair Witch Project (1999), SAW’s budget was, by Hollywood standards, very low ($1,200,000, compared to a contemporary average of $33,000,000). However, low-budget successes are familiar to horror, with fans expectant of, and even encouraged by, a film’s lowly roots. The dearth of capital can often work in the horror genre’s favor. The impoverished finances of these films are offset by the edgy sense of urgency such a rough-and-ready delivery entails. The mise-en-scène in these films often has a rougher, harsher look than in their Hollywood counterparts, and performances are similarly bluff (and often amateur); a coarse alloy that enhances the impact of the genre, and creates verisimilitude, almost as if the texts draw an earthy power from their budgetary restrictions. SAW simply looks unpleasant; and the (at times) awkward performance codes of Whannell suit the wretched situation his character is in.

      The distributors of SAW were quick to capitalise on the film’s genre appeal. Lionsgate released the film, and every subsequent sequel, on the weekend before Halloween. This savvy marketing strategy imbued each film with the aura of an ‘event’ release. Halloween is an increasingly lucrative market for all commercial avenues; $235m is estimated to have been spent in 2010 on merchandise and media linked to the ‘holiday’ date (twenty times what was spent in 2001). For Hollywood it is a money-spinning half-way mark that bridges the seasonal blockbusters of summer and winter. (One of the most successful independent films ever was tailor-made to the iconography of this evening, and even named after it: 1978’s Halloween.)

      The impact of SAW on the genre industry is discernible in the extreme horror films that followed on from its success, films that emphasised their gory content and focused on themes of pain and suffering. The Guardian’s film section acknowledged the influence of SAW and the subgenre it inspired: ‘Given the sheer, ruptured-sewage-pipe deluge of gore, mutilation and general unpleasantness that has come to comprise the peculiar sub-genre of horror known as torture porn [of which the writer proposes the birthdate is the cinematic release of SAW] it seems hard to believe that it is barely half a decade old’.⁶ Unquestionably, the film has been responsible for many imitators. One of the more interesting SAW cash-ins is Tom Shankland’s WΔZ (2007), which parallels SAW’s intent, right down to its mirror-image title. In WΔZ, victims of a sadistic moral crusader are forced to choose between killing themselves or a loved one. Indeed, the trope of pinioned and punished protagonist has infected even the most mainstream of franchises; when MGM wanted to reboot a grittier Bond, they were sure to include a scene in Casino Royale (2006) where Bond is strapped to a chair and is whipped in an exceptionally excruciating manner. The Dark Knight’s (2008) antagonist ties two betrothed victims to chairs surrounded by explosives: they are linked to each other by radio signals, and the audience watch as they say their harrowing farewells to each other.

      British ‘Quad’ for SAW II

      The SAW film’s taglines are always mindful of their audience; ‘How much blood will you shed to survive?’, ‘We dare you again’, etc. This mode of address is not simply the hyperbole of advertising; part of the squeamish pleasure of the SAW films is its games, with which the audience can interact on an imaginative level, probing common fears of claustrophobia and loss of control. The films are committed to engendering a conspiratorial identification between protagonists and audience.

      FOOTNOTES

      3.    www.lionsgatepublicity.com/epk/saw5/docs/pro_notes.doc

      4.    www.boxofficemojo.com

      5.    Guiness Book of World Records, 2010

      6.    www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/aug/28/torture-porn-frightfest-quiz

      THE HORROR FILM AND THE STUDIO SYSTEM

      Horror has an ambivalent relationship with mainstream cinema. It is a niche pleasure that is at times actively avoided by audiences who otherwise love all aspects of cinema. Indeed, critic Mark Kermode argues that there is ‘an absolute divide between horror fans and everyone else in the world’.⁷

      If we look at the 20 top-grossing films, then none could comfortably be classified as explicitly falling within the horror genre. To achieve mainstream success, a film must be open to large, family audiences (to accomplish ‘chart-busting’ box office), and horror’s content and prohibitive certification would preclude this.

      http://boxofficemojo.com/alltime/world/ (as at 31 December 2011; figures rounded to nearest $100,000)

      Interestingly, however, it could still be argued that almost all of the films in the top 20 do share elements of the fantastic or even the supernatural, which are characteristically the concerns of horror. The only exception to this rule is Titanic, and even that film features scenes of threat and death. There are men in masks causing bloody chaos (The Dark Knight and Spider-Man 3), and monsters abound (Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings). Judging by the chart, it seems that despite horror’s niche status, mass audiences are drawn to supernatural elements and themes of peril as a matter of course.

      Nonetheless, it is relatively rare for the major studios to fund and distribute out-and-out horror films. For the most part, the films in the top 20 enjoy the creative and distributive benefits of a vertically and horizontally integrated system. For example, The Dark Knight is produced and distributed by TimeWarner: each stage of the film’s manufacture – production, distribution and exhibition– is owned by this company (vertical integration). TimeWarner is a major media conglomerate, which owns many media outlets such as the Time Inc publishing company and the CW Television Network, allowing the company a diverse and powerful command of the marketplace. However, the types of films that benefit from this system are those that are considered investments for the studio – films that procure mass audiences and multiple revenue

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