How to fix Saw…

I want to play a game.  

As audience members, you have all
given your hard earned dollars to a certain film franchise every
year since Halloween 2004.  The rewards you have reaped were
made for all of the fans of  violent and depraved traps, which
proved deadly for most of the characters caught inside them. 
One by one, you have grown increasingly excited for the newest and
goriest offering of John Kramer, otherwise known as the Jigsaw
killer.  But now, something has changed.  Many have become
jaded and  dissatisfied with a dead killer and a new
apprentice.  You question the long gone originality. 
Message boards are littered with questions about how the newest
messenger of death was able to use the voice of “Saw” for the
pendulum trap.  And finally, you might even wonder why any of
us should care about a real estate deal gone wrong and the people
responsible.  So now is your chance to think, discuss, dance a
jig or possibly even spew vile hatred at the idea of continuing the
franchise which has not yet reached it’s conclusion.

How can you fix SAW?  That
was a question brought up to me as a fan, and as one of the writers
here at JoBlo.com.  If I were to play this game, I would find
myself questioning keeping what is one of the most important
elements in each of the films.  And that is John Kramer
himself.  Tobin Bell created a uniquely frightening monster. 
His Jigsaw was a man at the end of his life.  He questioned the
respect and possibly the lack of joy that others had for their own
miserable fate.  With this, he took it upon himself to test
these individuals.  Would they give up the root of their pain
in order to survive?  Yet his arrogance and self righteousness
is really what made him truly corrupt.  I guess he’s never
heard the term, ‘Judge not lest ye be judged…’.  But with
all the intelligence and believe it or not, dignity Mr. Bell brought
to John Kramer, his character is dead… let it go. 

There is a love it or hate it
vibe with these films it seems.  I personally enjoyed the first
three very much.  But it wasn’t all the “torture porn”
(or “gorno”) that made it work for me.  In fact, with
Darren Lynn Bousman taking over the directors chair after the
original, the violence became a little overly squirm inducing. 
With SAW 3 there was a very mean-spirited and depraved feel to the
traps.  But believe it or not, that fit the motif.  It
was, we were led to believe, Amanda (Shawnee Smith) who developed
the devices.  Here we are, an accomplice to this self important
executioner, who found her own taste for blood.  Even Kramer
himself found it distasteful.  But what James Wan created with
the first, and Darren continued, was the growing relationships
within the franchise.  While the original film was basically
two men who get to know each other as they are faced with their
demons, part 3 explored the relationship between John and Amanda. 
And once three came to its dark and unsettling conclusion, it could
have made for one hell of an ending to the series. 

But it wasn’t the end. 
Darren took on SAW IV and while it wasn’t on par with the first
three, it still had moments that worked.  Yet in the beginning,
we find the corpse of Kramer and his autopsy.  And guess what
that leads to, another tape and another go around of bloodshed. 
But for me, we lost any real investment in the characters.  Now
the supporting players from the first three were taking center
stage.   While this might have worked if they had
committed more to it, the continued to revel in the memory of Jigsaw
through flashbacks and memories.  And by the time the recent
SAW V came about, I felt much of what it had to say negated almost
all of what made the first three special.  As the latest baddie
Hoffman, Costas Mandylor feels obvious and a bit dim.  As I was
going back to watch each of the films, it was clear in SAW III that
they had every intention of making him the villain.  When Dina
Meyer is at the first crime scene, he reminds me of a stereotype
villain that winks at the camera announcing he is up to no good. 

What I really don’t buy in
Hoffman, is a man smart enough to come up with the pendulum trap,
let alone somehow get Jigsaw’s trademark voice and video to go
along with it.  Yet still, with the current announcement of
number six, the filmmakers should at least try and focus on him
without his sugar daddy Jigsaw.  Are there others that were
students of the Saw?  Probably many.  There was a movie
back in 1983 with Michael Douglas called THE STAR CHAMBER (which
looks to be getting a remake in 2009… Ugh).  The film was
about a group of judges who made sure that the guilty were punished. 
Why not try and piece together a more believable group that Jigsaw
put together.  The conflicts that you could add to the story
could be quite interesting, as long as you don’t lose focus on
character.  The way they have it now, by trying so hard to hold
on to Bell, they spend less time with what is going on in the
present.  Did anyone really care about the five people trapped
and forced to work together in five?  Hell, I love Julie Benz,
but I had zero interest in their plight. 

Now what about Betsy Russell,
the long suffering wife Jill?  And what the hell is in that
box?  I like this actress quite a bit and I think she has the
ability to inject a little life in the franchise.  She had lost
her husband and prematurely lost her child to a junkie.  And
now, she is being browbeaten constantly by the police.  Her
faith in humanity must be at a dismal low.  During the course
of marriage, you often find yourself connecting to your partner in
ways you’d never dreamed possible.  And frankly, even though
Costas is a big tough guy, I think I would buy her as a much more
realistic replacement for Kramer.  And if you want to make it
even more twisted, her husband was basically having what could be
construed as an affair with Amanda.  So there is a whole new
dose of bitter going on with her. 

I am certain that the men
making the decisions already have a design for SAW VI.  And for
those of you that have not one iota of interest in these movies and
don’t understand why they continually make them, just look at the
numbers.  SAW V, which was the weakest in the series critically
and financially, still has made just over 79 million worldwide (at
press time) as opposed to its 10.8 million budget.  And yes,
Lionsgate has officially announced that the latest SAW film will be
torturing moviegoers on October 23^rd of 2009.  So of
course, financially it makes sense for them to continue with the
franchise.  Yet with that, I think they really should redirect
this series out from the shadow of Mr. Kramer.  He’s dead….
Get over it.  And with all the accomplices that have popped up
throughout the series, there is surely a tale to tell with that. 
But to make it interesting (similar to what Amanda was doing)
let’s see how somebody else would handle the judged.  Again,
Jill is the likely player to do this, but I also think it might be
more interesting to take the series away from John Kramer and find
ourselves with an entirely unconnected set of players. 

As I re-watched the first film
recently, what really made it fascinating was the mystery of it all. 
But for the most part, the mystery is gone.  It is more an
exorcise in gruesome violence, which is even more surprising since
part 5 had very little of that.  Although I will admit without
giving anything away from the latest release, I liked that the
players had to do something different this time around.  It’s
just a shame that they seemed so disconnected to everything else…
but I’m sure SAW VI will explain enough of it.  All I ask
is… no more flashbacks, bring back some of the mystery and maybe
there is a little suspense left in the franchise.  As much as
it saddens me, Tobin Bell and Shawnee Smith are gone.  They
offered what was one of the most fascinating villainous duos that
I’ve ever seen.  But the more we see the other accomplices,
it cheapens that entire storyline.