Sawn In Full

I know you.  I know what you're thinking.  You're wondering how many traps were made by Jigsaw and his associates.  You want to know what moral lessons were taught to unwilling students.  And you would really like a precise body count for the entire Saw franchise.

Well, here's your answer, honkytonk!

Many thanks to the good people at WayToBlue for drawing up this infographic chart to help us navigate the Saw franchise.

Click to biggen.

About Saw

It's taken me a couple of weeks, but I think I've finally wrapped my head around the Saw franchise.  Rather than attempt to explain the complicated though processes involved in writing a Saw sequel, I've created a kind of mind map to assist in understanding how people think about Saw.

 

 click to biggify

Saw IV

I'm a completest. Sort of. I own all the Freddies, most of the Jasons and have watched almost half of all. So when Saw IV hit theatres I said I'd see it just 'cause.

Now, like 8 months later or something, I've finally seen it. A cam, no less. Filmed in Germany or Austria or some such place.

And I've had a few. Wallowing in my own self pity and fueled by a desire to get drunk, watch a crappy movie, and pass out.

Mission accomplished. Almost.

When this movie ended I said to myself, out loud, "That was confusing."
"What?" asked the bedspread.
"So it takes place at the same time as Saw III?"
"I guess" said the bedspread.
"Yeah, thanks." I replied. The bedspread wasn't helping.

Saw IV follows the stories of about five different people. Their lives have been deeply touched and/or damaged by Jigsaw in differing ways and the drama plays out in real time as one character has 90 minutes to save Donny Whalberg and friends from certain death. Meanwhile, we learn more about the Jigsaw character and how he came to be.

And let me just say: lame. Don't get me wrong, the guy was kind of nuts to begin with and if that shit happened to me, I might go crazy too. For a little while. And then I'd pick up the pieces of my shattered dreams and carry on living. I mean, isn't that the ultimate test?

Besides the GRE?

I wasn't blown away by the story. In fact, I found it to be rather lackluster and a lot of what happened--the torture--was totally unnecessary, which is a big problem considering the plot revolves around people being put in morally (and painfully) compromising positions. I was grossed out and somewhat impressed with some of Jigsaw's games, but on the whole, not a terribly inventive movie. But its got interesting ways to torture people and a "twist" ending that I'd argue is really more complicated than revealing and made me spend too much time thinking about what just happened when I could have been thinking about the situation that lead me to drink half a bottle of wine and watch this movie in the first place.

And I'm no more enlightened than I was two hours ago. Maybe next time I'll drink the whole bottle.