Movie Thursday: #3

The Saw Franchise

October 2004. The fall semester of my senior year of high school.

When you live in a small town like Daleville, Alabama, there is not much to do for entertainment if you don't particularly feel like going an illegal route. Our main choice for amusement was going to the movies. Everyone was talking about going to see the latest big horror film, "The Grudge." My friend (and future roommate) suggested we go a different route and take a chance on a movie that was barely advertised, but got a really high rating on IGN.com, a website we often check to make decisions such as these. That movie was Saw.

I remember everything about the first time I saw that movie. From squirming in my seat at the traps to intensely trying to figure out what was going on to literally cheering with everyone else in the theater during a climatic "fight scene" at the end and then sitting, stunned, at the ending as the credits rolled and you could still hear screams.

I wasn't "scared" but the movie had psychologically gotten into me. During the 20-minute drive home, barely a word was said. We were comprehending what we had just seen.

The next year was our freshman year of college and Saw II turned into an event. It fell on homecoming weekend for our high school (back then you HAD to come back for homecoming) so it turned into big thing where a bunch of friends come to our house in Auburn afterward. It was a fun weekend with a great sequel.

Then Saw III happened. At the time, I thought they were ending a trilogy so when it ended I felt anger. I had so many questions and wondered what they had just done. It killed my buzz so much that I stopped associating memories with the movie.

Saw IV got back on track. But as good as it was, it also entered more questions and the plot started taking spider-web like turns.

I honestly, right now, can't tell you the difference between Saw V and VI. The events run together and I couldn't tell you what happened in which movie. But they never went downhill, not in my opinion.

The Saw franchise has taken a lot of heat (SPOILER ALERT): The main villain dies in the third movie; they keep on making movies when they should have really stopped after the second; the traps have been referred to as "torture porn." My gripe is the 3D inclusion of the next installment (not called Saw VII, but Saw 3D). It can be kinda cool - or it can be really corny.

For the record, I am not a fan of the gore. I am a fan of the story. And I look to forward to (hopefully, finally) closing the book that is Saw this weekend.