Leading what could be a decent weekend at the box office is the sixth installment of the lucrative “Saw” series. Premiering at Sundance back in 2004, with a surprisingly talented cast, the original “Saw” started not only its own storied franchise but a host of imitators including last weekend’s critically maligned “Law Abiding Citizen.” Now on top of “Citizen” “Saw” number six hits theaters, and one wonders if audience tastes will continue to flock to the seventh film in the series already in pre-production.
I remember back in 2004 when former EI contributing writer, Sean Keeley warned me about “Saw.” He was, as I remember it, working for the distributor, which I think was Lionsgate back then. The two horror films creating buzz at the festival that year were “Saw” and that French flick “Haute Tension.” “Saw” proved to be the most commercial and launched the career of Director James Wan and writer Leigh Whannell. Both stepped away from principal involvement in the sequels although their writing talents were utilized and Whannell even reappeared as Adam in the third film.
Made on a small budget of 1.2 million dollars, the first “Saw” was inventive and scary (in a witty and shocking way). I’ve not seen any of the sequels but from the looks of things, the story-line continues to focus on the maniacal master plan of Jigsaw (played in a career defining and, alas, typecasting fashion by eerie Tobin Bell). The first film had Jigsaw, a serial killer with a talent for making his victims off each other, capturing folks and temporarily imprisoning them in a room with a gruesome Hobson’s choice. One would think that once the film reached its shocking conclusion, “Saw” would be a one trick pony. But after amassing an impressive 55 million in theatrical take, the money grab was just too hard to resist. And the very next film proved to be a smash hauling in almost 90 million dollars and expanding for the fans the universe created by Wan and Whannell. A franchise was assured.
The unique thing about “Saw” was that the first film was fairly well received by critics. And unlike the failure of the “Blair Witch” sequel, the “Saw” mythology lent itself well to better production values and studio treatment. Fans are many and a new “Saw” film has been released every year since 2004. And like, say the work of Tyler Perry, production schedules have been met assuring a robust performance justifying future films. As an aside, say what you will about the quality of Perry’s work, he sure is prolific and his films easily cover their production budgets.
From what I’ve been able to determine, the actual budgets of the “Saw” sequels have remained in the 10 million dollar range. If this is true, production budgets for all 6 “Saw” films has yet to top 55 million dollars, or just about the box office take for the original 2004 film. What is clear is that diminishing returns have been received with the theatrical releases of films 4 and 5. Possibly audiences are tired of the milking and reinventing of the “Saw” mythology. Or wishful thinking, the level of violence and blood-letting has taken its toll—audience tastes are getting less coarse. Even director Darren Lynn Bousman, who directed installments 2-4, did not take up the reins on number 5 and a new director has been employed for number 6.
A constant in the series has been actor Tobin Bell, who will forever be Jigsaw. I saw the naturally creepy Bell on some kind of “Goosebumps” type show that my kids watched the other day. The guy was almost too much for my 5 year old! Bell is a talented and classically trained actor, but certainly couldn’t resist reprising Jigsaw. While he might want to do something that is more critically challenging, the chance to work and earn a substantial paycheck had to be high on Bell’s list of priorities. I even read that during the marketing of one of the “Saw” sequels Bell reportedly donated two vials of his own blood to be mixed with ink used in limited edition posters. Those posters were allegedly sold to benefit the Red Cross. Even if that story is not true, Bell’s continued presence in the sequels makes me want to suffer through them in one horrible (intentionally so) weekend.
But what will come of this sixth “Saw” installment? Forget whether it is any good, the distributor stopped screening these films for the critics long ago. But have audience tastes shifted away from such gruesome material?
Last week, I bemoaned what I referred to as the further coarsening of society as evidenced by the mainstream stab “Law Abiding Citizen.” I even got into a heated discussion (not an argument mind you) with Director F. Gary Gray about whether he had just gone too far with the level of violence in the film. Such violence was placed by Gray and his team in a film that, in my opinion, was targeted at audiences not traditionally prepared or accepting of high levels of gore. I thought the jumping of the violence meter in “Citizen” did little to convey the otherwise well-intended message of the film. Comparisons of “Citizen” to “Saw” were made by more than one critic. And while “Citizen” faired decently in it’s opening weekend, coming in at number two slightly ahead of the zero budgeted phenomenon “Paranormal Activity,” there is no doubt that the appearance of the real “Saw” franchise will further erode any gains sought by “Citizen’s” distributor Overture. After all, why take in a pale imposter when the authentic article is freshly available for the same price?
That brings me to my main point, are audiences beginning to grow cold to the gore and ultra-violence? While I can dream, I seriously doubt that violence will subside at the local metroplexes. There’s just too much money in all that blood. “Saw VI” would have to bomb exquisitely in order to prevent the release of number seven next year. But I suspect that it will be a long time before another “Law Abiding Citizen” will be sold to unsuspecting audiences merely looking for a good story starring their favorite movie stars. Like most franchises, excess is just part of the equation. Each sequel has to in some way exceed the ones that came before it. And while the “Saw” series defines excess perhaps more than any other, only low box office will stop the production of an eighth picture and a ninth and even a tenth.
