When people ask me what my favorite horror movie is, it’s always a definite tie that can’t seem to break. On one hand, one of my favorites is John Carpenter’s original Halloween film. On the other hand, we have James Wan’s 2001, Saw. The first Saw film was actually one of the first of the genre that I had ever seen and instantly I was hooked. I loved the intensity that the cast and crew brought to the film, the terrifying score and especially the end twist. Plus, who wasn’t terrified of Billy the Puppet? Fast forward almost 16 years after the original film debuted, and even I can’t keep justify the franchise that’s been built.

    After the so-called “end” to the franchise back in 2010, the studios decided they weren’t quite done ruining the Jigsaw legacy and decided to grace us with a new film in the saga, appropriately titled Jigsaw. Recently, I viewed this film, going in with very low expectations and I can I say that nothing changed these expectations. While it was a nice experience seeing Tobin Bell grace the screen again as the titular character, I couldn’t tell you another memorable character from this film. The film follows a group of unknown and unmemorable people as they try to survive a variety of Jigsaw’s games. When we’re not with this group, we’re following an equally as unknown and unmemorable group of detectives and medical examiners trying to solve the recent string of murders that follow Jigsaw’s patterns (despite him being dead over 10 years). Sorry for the spoiler but he hasn’t been alive since the third film in this eight film franchise, so it isn’t much of a surprise anymore.

    While it seems like I’m trashing this film, I will admit this, it is a HUGE upgrade over 2010’s Saw 3D and some of the other sequels. The film definitely wasn’t made to hook any new people to the franchise, rather satisfy the fans it’s already established in 16 year existence. It brings back many of the elements that’s made it so popular over the years such as it’s elaborate traps and twist-endings. The film’s over the years have helped coin the term “torture porn” within the horror genre, often focusing less on the story and more on themes of torture with plenty of gore. While this can be entertaining for horror-buffs around the world and of course the writers of these films always seem to one-up themselves with how creative they can be with ways in which they can kill people, none of the sequels can ever capture what made the first film so special. For one, the original in this franchise wasn’t focused on torture or gore, it was focused on the mystery of why these two men were trapped in this room with their ankles chained to begin with. There weren’t elaborate traps that tortured and killed people with blood spraying everywhere, rather the story stayed focused on the characters and plot, with the violence being more in the background. That’s not to say the original still isn’t a disturbing movie, but it was more of a crime-thriller rather than the torture porn we’ve come to known.

    As with most sequels in horror movie franchises, none of the other films in the Saw franchise are never quite able to capture the magic of the first. The sequels do have their twists and turns that keep viewers interested throughout the franchise’s now eight films, but they can’t help but to feel forced. For the most part, what it comes down to is just a plot twist surrounding a new apprentice of Jigsaw’s that the audience didn’t see coming, something also just continuously opens up room for more and more sequels. That’s the lesson that popular horror movies just haven’t seemed to learn over the years. It’s a similar formula we always see. The first film always brings about a completely new, exciting and terrifying concept that finds critical and commercial success. This usually followed by a less critically successful sequel that still finds box office success and the trend continues from there. The only thing that matters to studios though, is the box office success. The Saw film franchise has become one of the highest grossing horror film franchises of all time, despite all of them receiving mixed to negative reviews. And of course there are those rare times that horror film franchise can successfully build off of sequels. For example, The Conjuring films and their many spin-offs have all found to have a successful, winning formula (so far that is). But if we look at classic franchises such as the Halloween films, Friday the 13th or even A Nightmare On Elm Street, all have numerous and ridiculous sequels that again, may have been entertaining to fans of the original, but just felt forced and never lived up to the hyped of the original. Now, even in 2017 we see reboots and remakes of these films, all still failing to catch the magic of the original (and yet still making the money the studios want to see).

    I’m not one to say whether there will be more Saw films. I actually believed the franchise would be laid to rest after 2010’s “Final Chapter”, and yet here I am writing this piece on the latest installment. While Jigsaw didn’t get positive reviews (shocker), it still has found similar box office success of previous installments. That leads me to believe that we haven’t yet seen the end of our friend Jigsaw, and by Jigsaw I mean some whatever new apprentice studios can conjure up.