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.