A Ghoul Versus Saw III (Part 2)

Click here for Part 1!

The judge pleads for his life, busting out the old chestnut of “don't become a killer like the guy you're after!”. This gets through to Jeff so he goes over to the incinerator and reluctantly pushes the button. Heartbroken, he watches his son's favourite toys burn away in what I'll admit is a very well done scene. The key pops out, Jeff using it to save the judge from the vat of never ending horrors. You think that was gross though? You ain't seen nothing yet, as the next scene is Lynn performing GRAPHIC brain surgery on Jigsaw.

Bousman shows this with medical level details of realism as I long for the days of Wan's restraint and off camera gore. The shit we've been subjected to so far even makes the last movie look tame, but sadly Bousman hadn't even hit his stride yet. I LOVE bloody horror movies but only when there's a point to it. Here, it's just gratuitous for the sake of being gratuitous because THAT'S what horror is all about, right? RIGHT?! This wasn't even some poor victim getting eviscerated, it was just to be a gross as humanly possible.

A Ghoul Versus Saw III (Part 1)

Previously on Saw II...

Just pretend the first Saw never happened and the rest of this gets much, much easier to process. Jigsaw upped his game to Batman-levels of mind games, anticipation, and resources, as his efforts went city wide. We also learn he has an apprentice in the form of Amanda Young, the first survivor of his traps, who is being groomed to take over when he succumbs to his rapidly growing cancer. His latest target, Detective Eric Matthews, failed his test about as hard as possible and is now trapped in the iconic bathroom to slowly die.

After Saw II, filmmakers Darren Lynn Bousman, James Wan, and Leigh Whannell were ready to wash their hands of the franchise and finally move on with their lives. But then a very sad thing happened: Gregg Hoffman, one of the producers behind the series, unexpectedly passed away at the very young age of 42. The three agreed to make one last final movie in his name, so production was begun right away.

The marketing for the film basically boiled down to “It's Halloween, time for another Saw movie! Come on, what else are you going to go see?”. That's good and all because I am literally the target audience for that mind set, but it's just so devoid of any kind of creativity whatsoever. If you need further proof of this, Lionsgate didn't even bother to screen the film for critics which is NEVER a good sign. The studio knows it's not a good movie, so there's no point in everyone else telling them it sucks.

A Ghoul Versus Saw II (Part 2)

Click here for Part 1!

Xavier returns to the safe room, trying in vain to open the safe until he notices a number tattooed on the back of Gus' head. Jigsaw's clue from the first tape plays in his mind, as the proverbial light bulb goes off over his thick skull. He kills Jonas and gets the number off his neck, taking off after the rest of the survivors.

They're across the house, Laura finally finding the X Jigsaw mentioned way back when on a picture frame. Addison looks behind it to find a picture of Matthews and Daniel, confronting him over this but Laura has the courtesy to break up the tension by dying. Now THAT'S how you change an awkward subject! Addison decides she can't trust anyone and takes off on her own. Xavier gets the number off Obi's remains while Amanda discovers Jonas' body and drags Daniel to safety.

I can't help but wonder what the point of this little plot was, as Jigsaw said when they found 'X' it'd help them all realize why they're there. Sure, Matthews arrested all of them but how it THAT going to help? All it's going to do is make them turn on Daniel and probably try to kill him, which is VIOLENTLY counterproductive to Jigsaw's master plan. I guess since Jigsaw can anticipate everyone's decisions in perfect detail he knew by the time it was discovered most of them would be dead and it wouldn't matter, but still it seems like an odd thing to leave hanging out there.

A Ghoul Versus Saw II (Part 1)

Previously on Saw...

In which we met psychopathic serial killer Jigsaw, a man dying of cancer who kidnaps people and puts them into horrific traps they have to solve to survive. The traps usually involve physical disfigurement to survive, the catch that surviving this trap will make you appreciate life and change your wicked ways. At the end of the film Jigsaw gets away scot free, as we get the impression he's not quite done yet with his twisted crusade to make the world a better place.

The first Saw was the definition of a smash hit, made for almost nothing and turning a huge profit while getting very positive reaction from critics and fans alike. Its distributor, Lionsgate Films, knew they had something very special on their hands and wanted to create a new franchise based off yearly sequels releasing every Halloween.

One problem though: Saw's creators, James Wan and Leigh Whannell, had moved on to a different movie and were no longer available to helm a sequel. With less than a year from their targeted release date of Saw II and no one really having any idea what to do, fate handed Lionsgate a gift in the form of writer/director Darren Lynn Bousman and his script for a movie called The Desperate.

A Ghoul Versus Saw (Part 2)

Click here for Part 1!

Gordon tells Adam about his family, throwing his wallet over so he can see pictures of them. Adam finds a picture of Alison and Diana tied up, along with a message from Jigsaw saying “X marks the spot. Sometimes you see more with your eyes shut”. Adam hides this from Gordon and throws the wallet back. Flashback footage shows Gordon leaving his house after a fight with his wife, things only growing worse for her as the mystery figure from earlier breaks into the house, tying up her and Diana.

 

The man is revealed to be Zep, who peeks out the window for some reason. Apparently it was so he could be spotted by Tapp, who is holed up in a building across the street watching Gordon's house. We see something has happened to Tapp in the five months since first learning about Jigsaw, as he has gone a bit off the deep end and seems to live in a Room Full Of Crazy (complete with tons of newspaper clippings about Jigsaw pinned to the walls) while obsessively spying on Gordon.

We go back to the night of Gordon being questioned, with Tapp returning him to the hospital after Amanda was done speaking. Tapp obviously believes Gordon is still involved somehow, dropping a vague threat and driving off. Tapp goes back to his office to analyze the recording Jigsaw left for Amanda, identifying some of the graffiti on a wall to an abandoned mannequin factory in the city. Sing wants to get a warrant but Tapp dismisses this, because they don't need no stinking warrants!

A Ghoul Versus Saw (Part 1)

“I want to play a game. And like most games, it's going to go on WAY too long.”

Now that the snooze-fest Transformers: Age Of Extinction is out of the way, we now return to our regularly scheduled programming. Originally for the month of October I had planned to do a collection of widely varied horror flicks covering every category, BUT that changed when I got my hands on the entire Saw collection on blu-ray. Seven movies that completely transformed the modern horror genre, although the big question is was that a good thing or a bad thing?

Up until the first Saw movie in 2004, the mainstream horror genre had been kind of spinning its wheels as the trend at the time was a heavy infusion of sci-fi and/or action, leaving us with “classics” such as Dreamcatcher, Feardotcom, Ghost Ship, Resident Evil, Ghosts of Mars, Thir13een Ghosts, and Hollow Man. On the franchise side you had Friday The 13^th and the Halloween series steamrolling their way towards a reboot with disappointing outings, while the only new franchise to launch was Final Destination, which, while being very entertaining, is BARELY horror.

Sure, some gems did sneak out during these dark times like 28 Days Later, the American remake of The Ring, and the WAY BETTER than it had any right to be reboot of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but for years it was just crushing letdown after crushing letdown. Saw changed ALL of this, bringing horror back to its low budget roots with a film that was harshly violent with very sharp elements of suspense and intrigue to it.