Wednesday, October 29, 2008

I Saw Saw.


Saw had a bad rap from the start. I remember when it came out in 2004. My intern cohort and I were both into horror movies and were joking about all of us skipping out on seminar day to go watch Saw I. We never went. Somehow we heard it was a bad horror from somebody. Well now, 4 years and 5 Saws later, I decided to give it a go. D had Saw I-II. We were able to record Saw III on TV. We bought Saw IV from amazon.com. After watching the first 4 Saws nearly in a row, we had to see Saw V. So, last night we went to watch Saw V. You'd think the same premise would get old. The whole ancient torture methods drawn from around the world many many hundreds of years ago might seem scary at first then trite. But I will tell you, I am thoroughly impressed by the Saw horror series' ability to keep me wanting more, to see what other torture vs. escape method is next, who the next victims are and what they have to do to survive, or not. Every Saw has kept me writhing in my seat, nearly covering my eyes, grimacing, saying Oh Shit, glad I'm not there!, and left me with a sense of unease. And i love it. I don't know if it will ever get old, but I do know that I am always impressed with the creative, sophisticated, and twisted ways the characters have to torture themselves in order to survive (most of the time). There's nothing more demented than having to get your hand and arm sliced in order to escape detonation, or getting your hand crushed so you're not gutted by a swinging pendulum of death or gouging out your eyes to get a key to a lock so nails won't spring into your face. Live or die. Make your choice.

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