Jigsaw: Let the Games Begin — Part 6 of 8

I’ve had seven years to solidify my opinion on the ranking of the first seven SAW films. With 2 weeks until Jigsaw’s release, I return to looking back at each film.

This series will summarize each movie’s plot / interesting points, with some commentary about why it’s silly or cool, etc.

We’re winding down, huh? Two weeks until Jigsaw. One movie left after this — which at this point is no twist, SAW is the number one spot on this list. But SAW II is leaps and bounds better than the films that follow it, even with bright spots like SAW VI.

Freshman year of high school is a nightmarish world of bad memories for me. It’s also the year the Xbox 360 came out, I got a PS2 and fell in love with a weapon shaped like a key, and the year I saw the first SAW on DVD while recovering from Mono. 2005 is also the year SAW II is released and provides a very different experience to the first movie.

I started high school fall of 2005, and was excited by the prospects of a SAW sequel. And, so SAW II has an interesting place for me. It’s the first film I’m anticipating in this series. But, much like SAW III, it’s a film I won’t see for quite awhile later.

SAW II is also the first, and only film, where I go in knowing exactly what’s going to happen. I saw the film a decent chunk of time after the DVD release. That time meant I had already heard the new big twist — the woman Amanda!? She’s Jigsaw’s apprentice! They go back to the bathroom!

There were parts I didn’t know but the big reveal was more going to be interesting in how it happens rather than what happens.

The film also is shrouded in a certain kind of allure for me — hearing people are vomiting mid viewing, etc. Which, in hindsight is weird — the movie is definitely more violent than the first movie but still tame compared to other horror films and especially the sequels to come.

First, let’s do the song and dance about plot.

We open with a man in a dark room waking up and seeing a “Venus Flytrap” mask attached to him. It’s also kind of like an Iron Maiden in that sense. This dude we learn is in the drug business and has a key surgically placed behind his eye (starting the first of many plot holes that only make sense to fans, and really… anyone not trying to focus on Cary Elwes’ financial disputes, if Dr. Gordon is now helping Jigsaw).

Jigsaw’s puppet, Billy, narrates this as usual. And this is the first important thing for SAW II’s effect on the franchise. It creates a template. Every subsequent SAW has a trap in the early minutes that is seemingly disconnected from the following plot — it’s just a way to immediately appease the people going for thrills and terror.

In this film, the death of this dude leads us into the introduction of a recurring new kid on the block… former (current?) New Kids on the Block member, and lesser known for acting brother of Marky “Say hi to ya Motha fa me” Mark, Donnie Whalberg. Whalberg plays Detective Eric Matthews who is, evil Hoffman aside, the most developed police officer in the entire franchise.

It’s important. That.

Matthews is the second template for future SAW movies — there’s always an officer we follow to some degree. SAW III we briefly have Kerry from this movie and the original trying to find out what’s happened to Matthews (more on that). SAW IV has Rigg, Matthew’s friend tested. SAW V shows FBI Agent Strahm tested while pursuing … Detective and Jigsaw apprentice Hoffman. SAW VI has the FBI (and Agent Perez) doing the same thing, and SAW 3D adds an Internal Affairs officer trying to catch Hoffman now that it’s out in the open he’s up to shit.

TO BE FAIR, SAW has Detective Tapp as a key element but he’s one of many moving pieces where these films start to rely more on officers, detectives, etc.

The third template is that we learn a group of victims are being tested. This is the biggest template — each sequel focuses on this in some way — SAW III has Jeff judging people he hates to learn forgiveness, SAW IV has Rigg learning why Jigsaw does things while … judging criminals, SAW V has a house setup with people having to survive, SAW VI has the health insurance plotline, SAW 3D has the bogus self help guru admitting to his bullshit while doing the same thing.

The final template is the twist. This is taken from SAW but becomes more and more key to the viewing experience — some people may only watch to see how they’ve been fucked with and to see if it even makes sense.

The thing is, much like Call of Duty 4 created a very successful but fucked up in by sheer lack of interesting changes template for every game since, SAW II was well, good. It wasn’t as imaginative as the first film but it’s surprising it worked as well as it did.

SAW II’s origins are weird. The film was originally pitched as a separate film by director Darren Lynn Bousman. The film was immediately fast-tracked after the first SAW had a huge opening weekend. The condition, of course, being that the film be reworked as a sequel.

Sequels typically opt for a “more is better” route. More usually means bigger stakes, scale, etc. This shows in this movie. There aren’t a larger swath of sets but the sets of the movie are bigger and less claustrophobic. Jigsaw’s factory/hideout and the Nerve Gas House are larger venues than the bathroom of the original film, and we even start to get a picture of the bathroom’s location and we start to feel that sense of scale.

The film also has a larger cast — Jigsaw is actually fleshed out beyond being a dude on the floor of a bathroom. We learn he’s very smart and cunning but seems driven largely by his failed suicide attempt giving him purpose… or his cancer. The two kind of end up being moot after SAW IV as it’s his child’s stillbirth that kills him inside.

He’s the star (surprise?) and an interesting foil for Detective Matthews, who we learn is the connecting thread between the victims of the house — he’s used less than stellar means to convict each of these people wrongly (though none of them are saints…). Oh, and one of them is his son, Daniel.

Matthews is angry, emotional and intense. Jigsaw is cold, calculating, amused by Matthews’ alpha male bullshit, etc. Jigsaw wins obviously.

Going back to the son, and the house. SAW II’s use of a separate trap to the “A” plot is the best the series has in terms of how it connects. Partially as a a victim is both returning (Amanda, and she does a good job explaining why — she “didn’t learn her lesson”) and very closely connected to the “B” plot’s tension — Daniel being the son of Detective Matthews.

Watching the film knowing the twist was interesting but makes Amanda’s character more interesting.

You see, the twist of SAW II is that Amanda wasn’t another victim — she’s a plant. Her job is to make sure Daniel stays safe, and while she gets one of the most difficult to watch traps in the whole series (yet, in a testament to “painful to watch” vs “gross” — one of the least gorey) she soldiers through it while playing this faux “oh shit not again” character secretly aware of what’s going on, and a willing part of it.

Her reveal as the apprentice is wonderful because it instantly shows hows much her character was acting. The Amanda that Matthews meets is cold, in control — nothing like what her terrified, almost helpless role in the game is. And, even her reveal is somewhat of a feign — we learn in SAW III that she’s still very much an emotional person (which is okay! but I guess, not if you’re Jigaw?).

The house itself is also much more scary than the actual violence of future films. Yes, it’s violent. Yes, there are scary mechanisms (the knife box we see is fucked up in so many ways). There is a door with a revolver waiting to trigger, for example. But it’s not that scary — it’s the situation that is. You have very intense personalities, with some known for a history of violence, being told they have to find a cure or will die.

The tension ratchets based on how to figure it out — we see the character who tries to “set aside differences” and work together (he gets a nailed bat to the back of the head). We see Javier, who becomes the “A” villain by starting to eliminate other people out of anger, and eventually, to find the code to the antidotes.

It also does the slasher film lite elements SAW 3D has but better partially because the turn seems slightly more on tone.

Javier’s anger and turn to murder also triggers the first “minor” (but also cool!) twist before the final “real” reveal of Amanda.

The events of the house? You see, Matthews and the police are watching it from CC footage. They don’t realize, like us, that … it’s not live.

The footage is pre-recorded. Amanda makes a quick escape with Daniel and we learn (unlike Detective Matthews, ever) that the boy is fine and safe.

I’m not really talking a lot about SAW II here but what I want to instill is … it’s a worthy sequel but also the kind of sequel that has its affects linger and amplified with each sequel.

We have but one game, I mean test, I mean movie left.

The original SAW is a life changing movie for me, in good (and bad) ways. Next time I recount the magic of the first film and why, just why, I think I fell so hard for this almost entirely not fantastic franchsie.

The list:

1. SAW 3D: The Final Chapter
2. SAW V
3. SAW III
4. SAW IV
5. SAW VI
6. SAW II
7. SAW (next)

(Sorted from Worst to Best)