ROTTEN TOMATOES: Get Ready to See Saw with Alex

Get Ready to See Saw with Alex

Breaking into Jigsaw's traps for the first time.

by Alex Vo | October 12, 2009

If it's Halloween, then it must be time for a new Saw.

And if it's a new Saw, then it must be time to start up another Rotten Tomatoes trademark watching series. Come, join me in laughing at the misfortune of the easily-duped writer roped into spending the majority of his free time watching, consuming, and writing about torture porn!

Oh, wait, that's me...

Like our previous watching series, I'm approaching the series with rose-colored eyes, watching all six Saw movies for the first time in the course of a little over a week. I'll publish reviews and observations on each entry every weekday, detailing what it's like to finally tackle this controversial series and subgenre, five years after its inception. And look for insightful vital statistics on the subtler nuances of Saw, including body counts and most creative kills.

Here's our tentative schedule:

Day 1 (10/15): Saw (2004)
Day 2 (10/16): Saw II (2005)
Day 3 (10/19): Saw III (2006)
Day 4 (10/20): Saw IV (2007)
Day 5 (10/21): Saw V (2008)
Day 6 (10/23): Saw VI (2009)

Ready to fire up your Netflix queue? Have any advice or thoughts on the series? And, remember, no spoilers, lest you be dipped into a pit of molten razor blades and acid-tipped laser beams while contemplating some terrible transgression you did in daycare. Because that's what Saw's about right?

(1-20 of 37 posts) | Reply

Mr. Bo Ziffer writes:
on Oct 12 2009 07:08 PM

I usually tell people to watch the first movie, and then STOP COMPLETELY, because it's the only one with a sort-of closed ending. The series has gone off into these weird tangents and sub-plots, so I don't even bother watching them anymore. Good luck, though. I always love it when you guys crash course a whole franchise!

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michael t. writes:
on Oct 12 2009 07:18 PM

I agree, first film is great the rest are horse ****...the whole franchise actually kind of infuriates me cause when i tell people i like the first one they think i have no idea about movies caus they'v seen the sequels...
STOP THE FRANCHISE ASAP!!!

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Ice Monkey writes:
on Oct 12 2009 07:24 PM

The first is insanely tense and it messes with your head. The second is meh but at least it entertained. The others are just garbage.

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George Cauldron writes:
on Oct 12 2009 07:51 PM

Dear Alex Vo,

The Saw movies are absolute trash. Don't waste your time and talent writing about those movies!

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tomwaitsjr writes:
on Oct 12 2009 08:13 PM

I wanna go poop on you!

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Henry P. writes:
on Oct 12 2009 09:02 PM

The first movie is kinda already spoiled for EVERYONE, even if you claim you have never seen any of them, right?

Oh well, my advice to you: This is a very clever franchise. The writers(from franchise co-creator Leigh Whannel to Darren Lynn Bousmann, to the newbies Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan)have done their hardest to keep the continuity of the story going, and they have done an impressive job. So, even if the "traps", which is the reason why most people go see these movies, are ridiculous sometimes, it's the story that you have to pay attention to.

But the last two movies are the weakest. If you're NOT moved emotionally at all by the end of the third, don't even bother continuing.

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besserwisser writes:
on Oct 12 2009 09:32 PM

The first film is correctly considered to be the best of the series and its only an 'ok' movie. If you can get past the horrid acting you should enjoy it. And if you're a LOST fan you'll appreciate a little Michael Emerson.

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Paints Hz Shirt Red writes:
on Oct 12 2009 09:35 PM

Saw 6?! Damn when did they release 4 and 5!? The 7th installments probably already made and sitting on the shelf waiting for next october.

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Ryan T. writes:
on Oct 12 2009 10:49 PM

I think the most ironic thing about the 'SAW' franchise is the fact that each time a new installment comes out (EVERY October)and also the fact that they are a horrible waste of time and self-contradicting beyond belief...each new installment makes you appreciate the original more and more. It's like: when the original 'Saw' came out back in 2004, it was a GOOD movie. But now, in 2009, with 'Saw VI' coming out (and a planned 'Saw VII' for next year)...the level of stupidity that each new movie seems to achieve outdoes the last and continues to lower the bar. So low, that now the original looks almost like a masterpiece in comparison. Lol...

I feel like 'SAW XI: In Space- This Time...It's Better...We Swear' is right around the corner.

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Poor_Frisco writes:
on Oct 12 2009 10:50 PM

Wasn't there never a last posting for the last watching series on Harry Potter? I looked for part 6 for a while but to my knowledge it never came..

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Axem5 writes:
on Oct 12 2009 10:58 PM

Alex Vo, you can SAW me anytime.

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stefanie l. writes:
on Oct 12 2009 11:24 PM

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blattman writes:
on Oct 13 2009 12:28 AM

The first one was the best. Yes the rest are crap, but it is fun crap! I hate when people refer to it as torture porn. There is no sense of porn anywhere in these popcorn flicks. They are just blood and fluff, and it is only a movie.

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R writes:
on Oct 13 2009 04:13 AM

Still waiting for Day 6 of Deconstructing Harry...

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BatsInTheBelfry writes:
on Oct 13 2009 04:41 AM

I only ever saw the first one, and that was terrible. No way I'd watch the rest of the series.

"He doesn't kill people, he just abducts them and puts them in a situation guaranteed to lead to their death. That's... well crap, I guess that's killing them, there goes my concept."

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gigaherc writes:
on Oct 13 2009 05:01 AM

It's the longest presently ongoing horror franchise right now, so I really have no reason to trash the series, being a horror fan. Torture porn is a wrong name in my opinion, both hostels deserve the name better, and I've seen more brainless horror productions (The Final Destination, Halloween or any remake produced by Bay, anyone?!) that deserve to be bashed. Of course, the first was fresh and in a way original, next parts were worse, but not all of them (second and third were really ok, fifth one surprised me as a fifth part in a series which still stands up to original and keeps continuity).

Saw's ok, and I truly love C.Clouser's theme.

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Matanuki writes:
on Oct 13 2009 05:04 AM

In reply to this comment (#2552678)
The 7th? Didn't you hear? Jigsaw shot parts IX and X first, in all his perfectly awesome horror villain foresight, and then worked backwards from there. He wrote this conversation we're having, in fact, long before any of us even heard of Rottentomatoes. That's one cool guy....

But for serious, folks. I made it part III before I tuned out completely. This is how much I liked the first one. Took em two more films to convince me they were determined to completely wreck the franchise from word "go".

Here's a question for these intellectually penurious idiots to consider the next time they trip and fall into a good idea for a villain: If you're gonna kill your head honcho halfway through the series, which of the following options is more useful to illustrate his horrific genius -A) develop a following for him and model real life monsters like, say, Hitler, whose intelligence and charisma was so brilliantly twisted that hundreds, thousands, millions follow and carry on his message? or B) devise a bunch of bull**** shortcuts and deus ex machina tangents and subplots in a desperate attempt to legitimize three whole movies set in motion by a dead man himself not risen from the grave?

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Gordon Franklin Terry Sr writes:
on Oct 13 2009 06:00 AM

Even though the first SAW is the only watchable (in my opinion) movie in the SAW series, EVERYBODY is crazy-over the SAW movies because almost every year there's a new SAW.

I watched SAW III only because JIGSAW was supposed to be killed thus closing out the first sub-chapter of the SAW series. Yet JIGSAW still appears to be around. Well, when I was a kid we had: FRIDAY THE 13th,FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2, FRIDAY THE 13TH PART III (IN SUPER 3D), FRIDAY THE 13TH PART IV: THE FINAL CHAPTER, FRIDAY THE 13TH PART V: A NEW BEGINNING, FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VI: JASON LIVES, FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VII: THE NEW BLOOD, FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VIII: JASON TAKES MANHATTAN, (later) JASON GOES TO HELL, JASON X, FREDDY VS. JASON
we also had
A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET PART 2: FREDDY'S REVENGE, NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET PART 3: DREAM WARRIORS, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET PART 4: THE DREAM MASTER, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET PART 5: THE DREAM CHILD, FREDDY'S DEAD: THE FINAL NIGHTMARE (A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET PART VI), WES CRAVEN'S NEW NIGHTMARE

STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE, STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KAHN, STAR TREK III: THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK, STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME, STAR TREK V: THE FINAL FRONTIER, STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY, (later) STAR TREK: GENERATIONS, STAR TEK: FIRST CONTACT . . .and another STAR TREK with Anthony Zerbe as the bad guy

POLICE ACADEMY, POLICE ACADEMY 2: THEIR FIRST ASSIGNMENT, POLICE ACADEMY 3: BACK IN TRAINING, POLICE ACADEMY IV: CITIZENS ON PATROL, POLICE ACADEMY 5: ASSIGNMENT MIAMI BEACH, POLICE ACADEMY 6: CITY UNDER SEIGE (later), POLICE ACADEMY: MISSION TO MOSCOW

and kids ten years older than me had
PLANET OF THE APES, BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES, ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES, and BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES (and a PLANET OF THE APES tv series followed by three or four PLANET OF THE APES TV-movies cut-togther from the tv series)

(with me The Dividing Line for "kid" and "non-kid" is circa 1989 . . . after graduating high school going to the movies isn't the same because you're a "non-kid"--a post-high school kid)
so you kids can't complain . . . at least your series-es don't have subtitles.
its just
SAW, SAW II, SAW III, SAW IV, SAW V, and SAW VI
that's it

kids today have it easy . . . sequels with no subtitles.
People get mad when I start reciting "the sequels and their subtitles"

movies are important to me: people recite Shakespeare solioquies I recite Sequels and Subtitles.

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Gordon Franklin Terry Sr writes:
on Oct 13 2009 06:02 AM

Hollywood is screwed-up come to think of it MAKING US watch so many dastardely movie series.

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TombstoneLawDog writes:
on Oct 13 2009 07:45 AM

In reply to this comment (#2552702)
blattman wrote:
I hate when people refer to it as torture porn. There is no sense of porn anywhere in these popcorn flicks.

...they're not literally talking about 'porn' here. They're using it as a metaphor to convey the sense of prurient gratification some folks get from either actual porn or some other fetishistic desire; it's a way of saying 'these folks get OFF on this' in shorthand.

I also pretty much gave up after part 3 (which was at least marginally clever) and then over a year ago I started dating this girl who LOVES the franchise(?!) and have subsequently caught up. Yes, they're getting sillier and sillier, but I still appreciate the demented creativity that goes into creating these devices.

The thing I do NOT appreciate and--to the extent I waste time thinking about this story arc-- annoys me quite a bit is that by now they've indicated that there have been no less than THREE people at each of these killings (Jigsaw, Girl henchman and Hoffman). It seems like each sequel, in order to be able to kill off and introduce new killers, flashes back to the SAME killings from part one but adds new characters. Pretty soon we're going to find out that the entire Boston Philharmonic took part in kidnapping Cary Elwes' character in the original.

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