The Focus on Saw

I don't plan to limit the scope of the blog to just the Saw movies, although volumes could be written about them. I am focusing on it for now, as the Saw essay was the first in The Horror Essay Series. So, I've watching the movies. Saw VI comes out on DVD on the 26th of this month, so it's a good reason to celebrate it.

And honestly, it is one of my favorite horror movie franchises, if not my favorite. I enjoy movies with complex thoughts that are driven on characters and their interaction. The games are driven by the traps, but the plot and stories are focused on how the characters are related. Also, I find the traps interesting. I really enjoy watching the special features that describe how they were engineered, how they work, and how they were shot for the film.

The Symbolism of Saw I - The Jigsaw Piece

The cut jigsaw piece taken from each game's "loser" is like a brand, tattoo, or a scarlet letter. It marks those who fail to give the appropriate sacrifice and are missing, in Jigsaw's mind, the will and desire to live. It is a way to make internal flaws visible on the outside.

The Symbolism of Saw I - Opposition

Pitting Adam against Dr Gordon is a sort of reenactment of the battle between age and experience and light against dark. Not only is it mirrored in their ages, education, and life experience, but also in their appearances, one has dark brown hair and eyes, the other light blond hair and blue eyes.

In Pagan mythology, two characters, the Oak King and the Holly King are also at odds. The Oak King rules over the light half of the year, when days grow longer. It is the period of the Winter to the Summer Solstice. He would most align in theory and appearance with Dr. Gordon. The Holly King rules over the dark half of the year, when the days grow shorter, during the period of the Summer to Winter Solstice. He would be more like Adam. The Oak and Holly Kings are not enemies, but rather opposing and necessary forces. They balance each other out.

The Symbolism of Saw I - Birth

I find that the similarities of the opening scene of Saw I and the realities of birth are striking. Adam wakes up in a tub of water and steps into darkness, like a baby moving from the mother and through the birth canal into life. He is overcome by confusion. He cries out for help, as a baby cries out for air. A baby's senses go through an adjustment period. Likewise, Adam can't see anything yet, but can hear Dr. Gordon speaking, answering his questions. He uses a quiet and almost muffled tone, making him difficult to hear. Then, Dr Gordon finds the light switch. The room and it's inhabitants are suddenly forced into the light and everyone can see. The "game" can begin. This is like when the baby's senses are fully working and the infant is now alert and alive. Also, while Dr. Gordon is a medical oncologist, it is ironic that a doctor should be present at the "birth."

The Symbolism of Saw I - The Clock

The only thing clean and new in the bathroom of Saw I is a clock high on the wall. The fact that the clock is new and clean highlights the lack of power that we have over it. We have no control over it at all. We can change way we count and measure time ot the words used to describe it. But time will continue on, indifferent.

Also, many parts of the story are told in flashbacks. There are flashbacks to Jigsaw's original traps - Mark, Paul, and Amanda. A flashback explains how Lawrence was implicated in the murders and how he and Adam were kidnapped. Also, there's another one for what happened when Tapp and Sing meet Jigsaw. This is done deliberatly in order to manipulate point of view of the viewer and the people in the traps. Certain details of the story are revealed only when necessary and others are hidden until the very end.

Time factors in most of Jigsaw's games and this game is no different. The players are given very little time to react to their situations, most likely to force them into making choices. By shocking their consciousness, they are forced to make brutal sacrifices in the blink of an eye or else pay the ultimate price, death.

The Symbolism of Saw I - The Bathroom

In Saw I, the main "players", Adam and Lawrence, are chained to pipes on opposite walls, with no apparent way to get free in a grimy, dirty bathroom.

Bathrooms are places where we get release and rid of things, like dirt and human waste. This a clue that in order to survive, the characters will have to let something go - a sacrifice is going to be necessary to live. While most bathrooms are clean, but this one is not. So, it signals a perversion/negation of that the meaning. So, we know the sacrifice is going to be a terrible one full of anguish and violence. It's going to be a painful process.

Also, bathrooms are symbols of purification, cleansing, truth, and honesty. When we release lies, we can cleanse and purify our minds, hearts, and souls. The truth is known. During the plot of Saw I, the lies told through out the movie are exposed. In the beginning Dr. Gordon lies that he was working at the hospital the night he was taken. As the story goes on, it's is revealed that he was actually at a hotel, cheating on his wife. He also confesses that while he was going to meet a women; he did not do anything with her and regretting what he was doing. Adam attempts lie as well. He lies about how he knew to turn off the lights and find the "x". When the truth is revealed it starts Dr. Gordon's breakdown.

My Horror History and Library

I was not a horror fan as a child. I watch Twilight Zone remakes and read The Amityville Horror and Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles - but that was it. Everything else was just too scary for me. When I turned 18, I started to watch the odd horror movie here and there, like The Blair Witch Project, Seven, and Halloween H20. But I still wasn't a real fan of the genre.

Then, something changed. I have no idea what it was. But I suddenly loved horror. I started to read some Steven King and Clive Barker and watch all sorts of horror movies from classics, like Dracula and The Phantom of the Opera to The Wicker Man, the Evil Dead, and Nightmare on Elm Street. Over the last decade or so, my love of horror has grown and I've even started to write my own stories and work on this blog.

I now have a pretty nice horror movie collection (but these are not all the movies I've seen):
13:Beloved (Game of Death)
976-Evil
American Psycho
Amityville Horror (1970's)
Amityville Horror: The Possession
Amityville Horror: A New Generation
Army of Darkness
Beyond the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon
The Blair Witch Project
Brutal
Cabin Fever
Candyman
Child's Play I
The Craft
Cube Zero
Darkness Falls (A collection of 3 Christopher Lee movies)
Dead Silence
The Devil's Rejects
Dracula
Evil Dead
Evil Dead II
Friday the 13th
Final Destination
Final Destination II
Halloween
Hellraiser (1-8)
High Tension
Hostel
Hostel II
In the Mouth of Madness
Intruder
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
Mr. Brooks
The Midnight Meat Train
Mr. Sardonicus
Nightmare on Elm Street (1-6, New Nightmare)
Nightbreed
The Omen (The Remake)
The Omen (1-4) (1970's)
Pan's Labyrinth
The Phantom of the Opera (Mulitple versions, including the disappointing Argento one)
Puppetmaster (Retro and 5)
Purfume: The Story of a Murderer
Repo: The Genetic Opera
Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Ring
Saw (1-5)
Scream
Season of the Witch
Seven
Silent Hill
Single White Female
The Skeleton Key
The Stepford Wives (1970's and remake)
Sweeney Todd (Multiple versions)
A Tale of Two Sisters
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Th3ee
Tormented Souls (A collection of 12 different horror movies)
Untraceable
Urban Legend
Van Helsing
The Wicker Man (1970's and remake)
Willard
Wishmaster
Wishmaster 2
Witchhouse
The Wizard of Gore (remake)
Friday the 13th the Series, Seasons 1 and 2
Masters of Horror, Season 1 and Part of Season 2