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Saw (film series)
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Saw is an American horror franchise that currently consists of five films, one future film, and various other forms of media. The franchise began with the film series, which was created by director James Wan and screenwriter Leigh Whannell, who remain with the franchise as executive producers, along with Oren Koules and Mark Burg. As well as being an executive producer, Whannell also wrote or co-wrote the scripts for the first two sequels.
The franchise revolves around the fictional character of John Kramer, also called the "Jigsaw Killer", introduced in Saw (2004), who rather than kill his victims outright, traps them in situations, which he calls "tests" or "games", in order to test their will to live via physical or psychological torture.
The original film was released in 2004, and following its success a series of sequels was produced by the independent film company Lions Gate.
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Encyclopedia
Saw is an American horror franchise that currently consists of five films, one future film, and various other forms of media. The franchise began with the film series, which was created by director James Wan and screenwriter Leigh Whannell, who remain with the franchise as executive producers, along with Oren Koules and Mark Burg. As well as being an executive producer, Whannell also wrote or co-wrote the scripts for the first two sequels.
The franchise revolves around the fictional character of John Kramer, also called the "Jigsaw Killer", introduced in Saw (2004), who rather than kill his victims outright, traps them in situations, which he calls "tests" or "games", in order to test their will to live via physical or psychological torture.
The original film was released in 2004, and following its success a series of sequels was produced by the independent film company Lions Gate. The film series as a whole has received mixed reviews by critics, but has been a financial success at the box office.
Overview
Flashbacks from Saw IV reveal the earliest roots of the series, presenting John Kramer (the future Jigsaw) as a successful civil engineer and devoted husband to his wife Jill Tuck, who opened a rehab clinic for drug addicts. Jill lost her baby due to the unwitting actions of a drug addict named Cecil, who fled the scene. John grieved over the loss of his child and distanced himself from his friends and his wife.
John and Jill eventually drifted apart and divorced. After this turn of events, John found himself trapped by his own complacency, until he was diagnosed with inoperable cancer. Extremely bitter over his squandered life, John began observing the lives of others and became even more depressed as he saw those around him squandering the gift of life that he had just been denied. After surviving a suicide attempt where he drove his car off a cliff, John was "reborn", and nurtured the idea that the only way for someone to change is for them to change themselves. He designed a test for Cecil and decided to use the rest of his existence to design more of these traps as a form of "rehabilitation" that would change the world "one person at a time". John then assumed the identity of the "Jigsaw Killer" (or "Jigsaw"), so named because he removed a puzzle-piece-shaped chunk of flesh from those who do not escape his traps. John himself states that this name was given to him by the media, and that the cut piece of flesh was meant to represent that these victims were each missing something, which was their will to live.
Few of Jigsaw's victims are able to survive his brutal tests, which are often ironically symbolic representations of the problems in the victim's life and require them to undergo severe physical or psychological torture to escape. The first surviving victim, Amanda Young, views Jigsaw as a hero who ultimately changed her life for the better. Amanda, upon Jigsaw's request, agrees to become his protégé.
In Saw, Jigsaw has chained Dr. Lawrence Gordon (the man who diagnosed him with cancer) in a dilapidated industrial washroom with Adam Faulkner, a photographer who has been tailing the doctor to prove he had been cheating on his wife. Lawrence has instructions to kill Adam in eight hours, or else his wife and daughter will be killed. Meanwhile, detectives David Tapp and Steven Sing, who suspect Lawrence of being Jigsaw, follow a trail of clues from other Jigsaw traps. Eventually, Lawrence saws his own foot off in order to escape, leaving Adam to die alone. Flashbacks from later films show that Amanda later returned and suffocated Adam as a mercy killing; it would be the first time she deliberately intervened during a test and killed someone.
Saw II begins with the police tracking a severely weakened Jigsaw to his latest lair. However, another test is in place, as he and Hoffman have kidnapped the son of Detective Eric Matthews and trapped him and a group of seven convicts previously framed by Matthews in a house that is slowly being filled with sarin gas, with Amanda Young among them. He will trade Daniel Matthews' life for Detective Matthews' time, conversing with him until the game is concluded. Matthews loses his patience and assaults Jigsaw, forcing him to take him to the house, only to discover that the video feed from inside the house had been pre-recorded, the events actually taking place much earlier; Matthews' son was locked in a safe in Jigsaw's warehouse, being kept alive with an oxygen tank. Matthews is knocked unconscious by a masked figure and wakes up imprisoned in the bathroom from Saw, which is part of the foundation of the house. Amanda reveals herself to Eric as Jigsaw's protege before leaving him to die. Matthews manages to escape the bathroom by breaking his foot. He confronts and beats Amanda, demanding to know where his son is. Amanda fights him off and leaves him for dead. An unknown figure later drags Eric to a prison cell, keeping him for a future game.
The events of Saw III and IV occur concurrently. Saw III begins with Jigsaw, weakened and near death, confined to a makeshift hospital bed. Amanda has taken over his work, designing traps of her own; however, these traps are inescapable, as Amanda is convinced that Jigsaw's traps have no effect and that people don't change. A kidnapped doctor is forced to keep Jigsaw alive while another test is performed on Jeff, a man obsessed with vengeance against the drunk driver who killed his son. Jigsaw, unwilling to allow "a murderer" to continue his legacy, designs a test for Amanda; she ultimately fails, and it results in the deaths of both Jigsaw and Amanda. Saw IV, meanwhile, revolves around tests meant for Officer Rigg, which are overseen by Lieutenant Mark Hoffman, another of Jigsaw's accomplices. Rigg fails his test, resulting in the death of Eric Matthews. Rigg is left in the factory to bleed to death by Hoffman, who later discovers the bodies of Jigsaw and Amanda. When an autopsy is performed on Jigsaw, a cassette tape coated in wax is found in his stomach; the tape informs Hoffman that he is wrong to think that it is all over just because Jigsaw is dead, and he should not expect to go untested.
The events of Saw V take place before and after Jigsaw's autopsy, and Hoffman's ties with John are revealed in a flashback during the film: Hoffman murdered a man named Seth (who had killed Hoffman's sister and gotten out of jail on a technicality) in a trap designed to look like one of Jigsaw's, laying the blame on him; Jigsaw then kidnaps Hoffman and blackmails him into becoming his apprentice in his "rehabilitation" methods, though eventually Hoffman would become a willing apprentice. In one of Hoffman's first solo tests, five people connected together by different roles in a disastrous fire that killed several people are put into four interconnected tests of teamwork, killing off one person in each trap. The two remaining test subjects realize at the final trap that each previous trap was meant to be completed by each of the five people doing a small part, rather than killing one person per trap. With this, the two work together and barely manage to escape from the series of traps (it is unclear if either survived). Meanwhile, Hoffman has set up Peter Strahm to appear to be Jigsaw's accomplice, while Strahm pursues Hoffman and is eventually killed due to the inability to follow Hoffman's rules, leaving Hoffman free to continue the Jigsaw killings.
Crew
Production
Characters
List indicator(s)
- Italics indicate appearances in flashback footage from previous films.
- A dark grey cell indicates the character was not in the film.
Reception
Box office performance
| Film | Release date | Box office revenue | Box office ranking | Budget | Reference | | United States | Outside US | Worldwide | All time US | All time worldwide | | Saw | October 29, 2004 | $55,185,045 | $47,911,300 | $103,096,345 | #921 | - | $1,200,000 | | | Saw II | October 28, 2005 | $87,039,965 | $60,700,000 | $147,739,965 | #447 | - | $4,000,000 | | | Saw III | October 27, 2006 | $80,238,724 | $84,635,551 | $164,874,275 | #546 | - | $10,000,000 | | | Saw IV | October 26, 2007 | $63,300,095 | $76,052,538 | $139,352,633 | #774 | - | $10,000,000 | | | Saw V | October 24, 2008 | $56,746,769 | $56,046,944 | $112,793,713 | #893 | | $10,800,000 | | | Saw film series | | $342,510,598 | $325,346,333 | $667,856,931 | | | $36,000,000 | |
Critical reaction
| Film | Rotten Tomatoes | Metacritic | Yahoo! Movies |
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| Overall | Cream of the Crop |
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| Saw | 46% (153 reviews) | 29% (7 reviews) | 46% (32 reviews) | B+ | | Saw II | 35% (109 reviews) | 23% (6 reviews) | 40% (28 reviews) | B- | | Saw III | 27% (79 reviews) | 6% (7 reviews) | 48% (16 reviews) | C+ | | Saw IV | 18% (66 reviews) | 0% (6 reviews) | 36% (16 reviews) | C | | Saw V | 12% (57 reviews) | 9% (11 reviews) | 19% (12 reviews) | C |
Media
There have been five Saw movies to date, with the latest being released on October 24, 2008. Each release made to date was released in theaters in consecutive years on the Friday before Halloween. An uncut version of the first three installments was subsequently released on DVD the following October before the next came out, though Saws IV and V have not continued this trend.
Films
- Saw, released on October 29, 2004.
- Saw II, released on October 28, 2005.
- Saw III, released on October 27, 2006.
- Saw IV, released on October 26, 2007.
- Saw V, released on October 24, 2008.
Other
- Saw, a 2003 short film that served as a promotional tool in pitching the film's potential to Lions Gate, included on the DVD release of Saw.
- Saw: Rebirth, a comic book prequel to the original film released to promote Saw II. Its canonicity was later contradicted by events in Saw IV.
- Saw, a video game based on the first film in the series, is scheduled for an October 2009 release.
- Saw: The Ride, is scheduled to open at Thorpe Park in Spring 2009.
Future
Producer Oren Koules confirmed on June 22, 2007 that VI is being made. Authors of the script include Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton, as well as Thomas Fenton. Saw VI will be directed by Kevin Greutert, the editor on all the Saw films to date, and will be released on October 23rd, 2009.
Tobin Bell has stated that he was signed on for a total of five sequels, with Costas Mandylor also being confirmed for the next installment in the horror franchise.
Records
- Saw V grossed more than 62.8 million dollars in its theatrical run, it's become the top-grossing horror franchise of all time in unadjusted dollars.
- Saw III gave Lions Gate its highest-grossing weekend in history, outdoing the previous record set by Saw II of $31.7 million to a bettering $33.6 million.
- Both II and III broke records when they were released in the holiday period of Halloween. Both movies managed to top the "Halloween Weekend Openers" Saw II premiered with $31.7 million in 2005, and Saw III, which bowed to a slightly higher $33.6 mil in 2006. Saw IV premiered at $32.1 million, making it number one at the box office on Halloween weekend 2007.
- All the movies in the Saw series have managed to gross over $50 million, putting them in the top 10 all-time highest total gross for Lions Gate.
- On IGN's list of the top twenty-five movie franchises of all time, the Saw series ranks as number twenty-five.
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