Saw is a 2004 American independent horror film directed by James Wan. The screenplay, written by Leigh Whannell, is based on a story by Wan and Whannell. It is the debut of Wan and Whannell and the first instalment of the seven–part Saw film series.
IMDB has identified this movie as a crime, horror and a thriller. It fits in with the crime and villain genre as alongside the scenes of the victims in the enclosed room there is a police investigation running alongside as a side story.
Classic horror themes are present. The hidden villain, the helpless victims, the dire situation.
 |
| Victim: Adam |
 |
| Victim: Lawrence |
 |
| Heros: the police and investigation team |
 |
| The 'hidden' villian: John Kramer (Jigsaw) |
Setting - a really dark and isolated, dirty bathroom. Immediately the viewer recognises this is a horror film from the dark colours and dirty miserable surrounds, with paired with a deep, atmospherical score make it obviously horror. Using the cages and barbed wire signifies that the people are helpless, and it is playing on people's fears of being isolated and trapped/helpless.
Characters - a side character (Amanda) who is female is shown crying and troubled, which represents the stereotypical view that the female will be the victim, because she is helpless and weak.
 |
| Amanda appearing as the poor helpless victim. |
However, this film challenges this by showing her defeating her 'game' and surviving on her own. In contrast the main male victims shown in the bathroom appear weaker, one having to injure himself to survive and the other not surviving at all.
 |
| Amanda defeating her 'game' and therefore opposing the female gender stereotype. |
Amanda's character largely supports Carol Clover's idea of the 'gender fluidity of the 'final girl' which enables the female to be more easily identified with by the male audience. She is not shown as most females are in horror movies, with alot of flesh on show, dumb, helpless and mostly naked and sexually provocative. Instead, she appears as a tomboy, wearing little to no makeup, having masculine traits with most of the shots focusing on her face and not her body and is similar to an adolescent male.
 |
| Amanda appears dressed covered up in black and with her hair pulled back - 'final girl' |
Yet, she still has a feminine name, which does oppose the theory that they usually have a unisex name, yet she still appears as the 'loner' type, and plays the role of Freud's 'castrated-male' theory. The film in this sense, (although mainly controlled by males) rebels against the one-dimensional female characters of the 70s and 80s, where they were objects of sexual objectification, and instead shows her more in light of the early 90's feminist positive image of a strong, independent female.
Props - various torture weapons and equipment represent pain and suffering to the victims, thus pushing further the horror genre. The doll creates fear by playing of people's fear of clowns. These collectively represent the horror genre so that the audience know what to expect from the movie.
Editing - a large amount of discontinuous editing creates a shuddering effect which doesn't allow the audience to get a complete understanding of what's going on. The use of the repetition of the line 'it;s your move' involves the audience, making them feel vulnerable, which is another key and common convention of horror movies.
The screenplay was written in 2001, but after failed attempts to get the script produced in Wan and Whannell’s home country, Australia, they were urged to travel to Los Angeles. In order to help attract producers they shot a low-budget short film from a scene out of the script. This proved successful in 2003 as producers from Evolution Entertainment were immediately attached and also formed a horror genre production label Twisted Pictures. The film was given a small budget and shot on a short schedule of 18 days.
Saw was first screened on January 19, 2004. Lionsgate picked up the rights and released the film in the United States and Canada on October 29, 2004. Critical responses were generally mixed and divided. Compared to its low budget, Saw performed very well at the box office, grossing more than $103 million worldwide and becoming, at the time, one of the most profitable horror films since 1996’s Scream. The success of the film prompted a green-light of a sequel soon after Saw’s opening weekend, which was released the following October.
Saw is mainly shot in one location, which is different to many other horror movies, as they often involve ‘chase’ scenes shot through multiple locations, involving movement. Saw has mainly one location, which I feel increases the claustrophobic, panic feeling to the movie. This also slows the movie down, stretching out the amount of time that the two main characters are trapped in the room, and it also makes the viewer focus more on the mental trauma that a main feature of the film, as the characters are torn between the decision of whether or not to hurt themselves to be free. The room which the majority film is shot in is grimy, unkept, dark and enclosed, which sets the base mood of the film as one of hopelessness and the feeling that there is ‘no way out’.
Throughout the movie there is flashbacks, giving the viewer hints of the past crimes of the victims, but also the killer. This gives a sense of foreshadowing to the movie, letting the viewer gather more information than the victims, which contrasts with the room scene, where the viewer is very much put in the character’s point of view.
 |
| Character's backstory is shown through flashbacks. |
This gives the viewer a sense of power, which is echoed through the movie as you get to learn the ‘value of life’ motive behind Saw’s killings, and gets to really connect with the killer, which is dissimilar to most horror movies, where the killer is almost behind a barrier, shown as an image, but not as a person.
Time is sped up during flashbacks, in which past death traps are shown, and this works to increase the sense of panic and horror in them. There is another type of flashback included; one from the viewpoint of the detectives, in which the dramatic mood is lessened by reducing the strong contrast between highlights and shadows that is used in the death scenes, and by slowing down time to a normal speed.
 |
| Time in the side story running alongside of the room sequence is played at a normal speed, with a normal tonal range to give a certain sense of contrasting calm. |
The flashbacks are also used as another form of foreshadowing, letting the viewer know what’s about to come, and therefore building suspense, just waiting for the expected to happen. This is done by showing heightened scenes of traps, and then cutting to the still, calmness of the present tense trap scene.
In the dramatic moments, quick, short cut scenes are used to give a feeling of panic, desperation and threat to the sequence, which gets the heart pounding and the adrenaline flowing, putting you further in the shoes of the victim.
The movie also has a strong theme of the feeling of being trapped in one place, linking in with the fear of claustrophobia. In common society we are used to being able to go where we want, when we want, and having everything at our convenience. This therefore symbolises a much more common, but less typically ‘horror’ fear of not getting our own way, which is important in our selfish society.
Another fear is explored in this movie, with that being the fear of ‘the lesser of two evils’. An example would be in Saw 1, it is a choice between either dying in the enclosed room, or cutting through your own leg to escape. In common culture, we have grown used to having an easy option, or an easy escape route. The victims in this series of movies usually are likely to take the easy route out, and so the killer forces them to confront their wrong-doings.
The movie jumps straight into the story, placing two unknown strangers in a scene and pressing ‘play’. The audience knows nothing about the characters, their situation or how they have come to be there, so it gives an air of mystery, and makes the viewer want to know more, and to keep on watching. Their backstory is only given bit by bit, not letting the viewer see the full picture until towards the end. This means that the film is still able to deliver a twist. There is three ‘storylines’ running alongside each other; the present of the two characters in the trap room, the slow hints of their past, and the story of the detectives that are on the case. This way the audience gets to see multiple people’s point of view, so they feel more in control and more powerful, but actually they are not given much information about the main characters, so they actually hold a false belief.
Todorov's theory of the repetition of narrative structure applies in this film, as with most movies.
It differentiates from this theory by launching the audience straight into the event, with the first scene consisting of Adam and Lawrence (the two victims) waking up in the enclosed room, immediately followed by them recognising the fact that they have been abducted and are now trapped, and with the discovery of the audio tape that the villain has left for them, the film then consists of the victims attempting to fix the event by playing the 'game'. For these main victims, there is no starting equilibrium where everything is ok, or as normal.
 |
| Event |
 |
| Debatable old equilibrium |
 |
| An attempt to try and fix the event. |
 |
| New equilibrium |
However, in a side story of Amanda, another victim, this theory can be demonstrated, yet in a different way. It starts with the event, and then the audio tape describes the old equilibrium, how things were before, which then leads on to the recognition of the event and thus the attempt to fix the event. From this, it also applies to the main story, with Adam and Lawrence's own tape being the description of the old equilibrium, coming second after the event instead of first, as in Todorov's theory.
|
| The audio tape which could be argued tells of the old equilibrium. |
The movie does end with a new equilibrium, which is different from the starting one, although not an entirely happy one, which shows the apparently dead man waking up from the floor and leaving the victim in the room.
After the new equilibrium, a flashback of the victims previous lives is shown, which could be argued to be the showing of the old equilibrium. I feel this works well, as it contrasts the end of the story with the beginning and what has caused them to come abouts this result.
All of Todorov's basic theories are included however in a slightly different order, which I feel works to keep the viewer on their toes by not revealing the whole of the backstory straight away and keeping them guessing and wondering.
Characters - a side character (Amanda) who is female is shown crying and troubled, which represents the stereotypical view that the female will be the victim, because she is helpless and weak.
Editing - a large amount of discontinuous editing creates a shuddering effect which doesn't allow the audience to get a complete understanding of what's going on. The use of the repetition of the line 'it;s your move' involves the audience, making them feel vulnerable, which is another key and common convention of horror movies.
