Friday, 3 May 2013
Wednesday, 17 April 2013
Saw 2 Horror Film Essay
Saw 2 is the second instalment of the Saw film sequel. It
continues the story of Jigsaw, a physically and seemingly mentally ill victim
of past horrors in his life. It is in this film that we learn more of his
background – by telling the audience that he has been suffering from cancer and
after a failed attempt at suicide from a car accident he has decided to spend
the rest of his life torturing others for his own amusement and entertainment.
This film was released in 2005 and is produced by Greg Hoffman, Mark Burg and
Oren Koules. Being distributed by Lionsgate, my immediate assumption of this
film (having not seen any others of the Saw franchise) was that it was going to
be relatively good as Lionsgate is a well-known production company for many
films.
If we compare this film to Todorov’s narrative structure
that every film has an equilibrium, event, recognition, attempt to fix ending
in a new equilibrium, it is clear that this film definitely challenges this
structure – specifically at the beginning and end. Examples
of this are at the beginning of the film, we see a man tied to a chair with a
spiked face mask on and ‘Jigsaw’ appearing on a television telling him if he
doesn’t retrieve the key to the mask from behind his eye with the scalpel
provided within 60 seconds, the face mask will close and he will die. This
shows us that the film will be cruel, include death and overall gruesome as the
man is unable to complete the task and he is shown dead before the title comes
up. This film is very different to other horrors as it does not start off with
everything okay, and it certainly doesn’t end that way too. It ends with the
main police character going to find his son but ends up dying also (by one of
the victims – which is a huge twist). One good thing about this film is that
there is no foreboding, we continue the journey of escape with the victims –
not knowing what comes next. I suppose the event would be the fact that they
are all trapped and have to figure out an escape route without dying. The
recognition would be that they all attempt to work together to exit the
building and the attempt to fix would be the police officer who interrogates
Jigsaw.
The audience expectations for this film I would imagine are
quite high, especially if they have seen the first film. From Saw, we expect to
see mind games, death, blood and gore which is different to most horrors as
this one includes a game – giving the victim a chance to escape for a change.
As I am not a massive horror fan myself, I didn’t know what to expect from this
film as I hadn’t previously seen Saw 1. I expected all the usual horror
conventions and wasn’t disappointed. As sequels can usually give the game away,
as it were, Saw 2 I believe is the most unique one as it reveals Amanda (one of
the victims and previous victim from the first film) as John (Jigsaw)’s protégé
which was highly unexpected.
The genre of Saw 2 is very much blood and gore – no creepy
stuff like ghosts or the paranormal. As this film is literally just classed as
a ‘horror’ – it doesn’t give much away about the film and what to expect, I
suppose as the creators assume you have already seen the previous instalment of
Saw. This film deals with blood and gore differently to the usual horror film,
as the victims have to take part in games in order for them to escape, for
example if they come to any harm, it is because of themselves and their incompetence
and stupidity for not following the rules. Some of the games created within Saw
2 are looking around in a pit of used needles looking for a key, tearing skin
from your own neck to see part of a code, retrieving a key from behind your
eye, putting your hands into a glass hovering box which then cuts into with
razor blades you leaving you to die and entering a furnace which then turns on
leaving you to burn alive.
There are only a few character types in this film and they
include the hero (Eric), the villain (John/Jigsaw), the victims (the people
trapped inside the house, and the final girl (Amanda). We see Eric as one of
the heroes as he is working with the police to try and track down the house and
interrogate John to help the victims, one of them being his son. However, as
much as we are rooting for Eric to find them, we are told throughout the film
that he himself has framed the current victims. It is just a matter of opinion
whether we see him as a good or bad guy in this film in comparison to the other
character types. The villain in Saw 2 is clearly John (Jigsaw) as he is the one
capturing these victims and testing them and their lives. However, even John isn’t
completely evil, it is revealed that he has cancer and once tried to kill
himself so the audience are possibly led to understand why he does what he
does. Tne victims are obviously the ones trapped inside the house with the
nerve gas, and although we feel sorry for them, we learn that each and every
one of them is a criminal so it is again up to the audience to decide whether
they deserve this fate or not. The final girl is also a strange one to talk
about in this film, as it is Amanda, who has not only now been a victim twice,
it ends with her revealing that she is John’s protégé and so who do we really
think she is? Good or bad?
Throughout Saw 2, the binary opposition is blatantly clear –
the typical ‘good vs. evil’. Although, on the other hand, referring back to the
archetypal characters, who really is good or evil? Are they all both? It is
only through watching and analysing the film closely that we come to a
conclusion about it as a whole, and about what we think about the characters
within.
In conclusion, having not seen any others of the Saw
franchise, Saw 2 is worthy of all it’s nominations and wins for certain
attributes and medals. Overall, having never really been a fan of horrors, this
delivered a new type of horror which I had never seen before which I found myself
relatively enjoying at some parts because of the clever plotline and how it was
set up. As a horror film, I believe it succeeded in its aims to scare the audience,
as well as entertain them.
Monday, 15 April 2013
Planning and Notes
Full Film Idea;
Our original film idea was very difficult to create in our
heads as we started off unsure on how to form the idea we had into a trailer.
Our full film idea focuses on one central character, who typically has a normal
everyday life. She is in her teens and one afternoon invites her friends over.
During this afternoon, they venture into the loft as her parents are out, and
whilst searching the loft, they hear a strange noise from underneath them. They
lift up part of the loft floor which then reveals a Ouija board. The friends,
although reluctant at first, decide to do the Ouija board with just the three
of them, in the dark, in the loft, with a shot glass and candles. During this
experience, nothing ‘out of the ordinary’ happens except a few moves of the
shot glass, which they all blame each other for – mainly because they refuse to
accept the fact they have unknowingly invited another presence into their
lives. Sam, the main protagonist is left alone that same evening, left thinking
something bad will happen to her. She is unable to contact her friends and has
a lack of sleep. However, the next morning arrives with everything seeming
okay. She travels to her bathroom to discover odd marks on her face. She is
unable to rid her face of these marks and over the next few days – a dark
figure appears near her, but she never sees him. Sam starts to become
possessed, killing her friends and joining the dark figure. Throughout the
film, we are constantly flashed back to the night Sam supposedly spent alone
and discover she was meeting with the dark figure in the woods, she just didn’t
know it yet. The film continues on with this structure and ends with a new
group of friends years later, creating tension for the audience as they know
their inevitable fate.
Recce Report;
Locations include – Sam’s house, street, woods and an attic.
We decided to go with the normal horror conventions as we didn’t want to
challenge them in anyway and so to create an uncomfortable, horror atmosphere
for our audience. Family homes are good for horror films/trailers as they
connote safety and a sense of protection, but these are then conflicted when
evil things begin to take over. Attic and woods in the darkness also portray
and connote evil things, death and an uneasy environment – which is great for
spooking the horror film fans out there.
Props and Costume
Lists;
Car, Ouija board, candles, make-up, face paint, cooking
equipment and a knife
Normal everyday costumes for Sam and her friends at the
beginning, dark clothing for Sam when she becomes possessed, and a dark black
jacket for the ‘dark figure’
Filming Schedule;
We decided to film in college time in our lessons and our frees as well as taking a whole two/three days in our Christmas holiday to film our shots for our trailer. Also, when we discovered we needed better or more shots, I then took time outside of college to complete this myself.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)