Jigsaw is the main villian of the horror franchiese, ‘Saw’. He is portrayed as the ‘anti-hero’ for the succession of the seven films created so far, although dies in the third film. The series, however, continues through Jigsaws clever ploys which set up many back-charactors to continue on his plans after he has died, so that a ghost of the charactor continues to expand through the following films.
Born John Kramer, he is in the series’ narrative, a former civil engineerdying from an inoperable frontal lobe tumor that had developed from colon cancer. After a failed suicide attempt, Kramer experienced a new respect for his own life and set out to force others through deadly trials to help them appreciate their own lives by testing their will to live through self-sacrifice. The tests were typically symbolic of what Jigsaw perceived as a flaw in each person’s moral character or life. The Jigsaw name was given by the media for his practice of cutting puzzle pieces out of the flesh of those who failed their ordeals and perished, symbolic of their missing survival instincts.
The viewer is left very much in the dark in getting to know the charactor of ‘Jigsaw’. He is portrayed as a mysterious, faceless killer at the start of the franchiese. His past slowly gets revealed through flashbacks that cut through the films, showing you piece by piece his story and his motives behind his actions. Looking at the backstory in itself, the viewer feels sympathy for Jigsaw. It tells of an old man, finally achieving to concieve a baby after many miscarriages, only to have his wife lose the child through a tragic accident at the robbery of her drug clinic.
Jigsaw was introduced in the 2004 film Saw through the character Dr. Lawrence Gordon’s recounting of his first killings. Jigsaw is described as a mysterious person who kidnaps people he sees as wasting their lives and attempts to “save” them. This is accomplished by administering various inhumane tests consisting of mechanical devices rigged to maim or kill the subjects or other victims if not completed within a certain time period. As opposed to other killers, Jigsaw does not actually intend to kill his subjects; the purpose of his traps is to see if the subject has the will to survive, and thus inflict enough psychological trauma for the subjects to appreciate their life and save themselves from their own demons.
Jigsaw’s image is unlike that of the usual burly horror killer. He is pictured as a lonely old man, crippled with terminal cancer. This immediatly makes the audience see him as weak, defenseless and not the type to commit such sins. This, I feel, makes his actions even more shocking, as his physical apperance tells that he is unable to physically carry them out
Jigsaw’s image is unlike that of the usual burly horror killer. He is pictured as a lonely old man, crippled with terminal cancer. This immediatly makes the audience see him as weak, defenseless and not the type to commit such sins. This, I feel, makes his actions even more shocking, as his physical apperance tells that he is unable to physically carry them out
