Let the game begin: Saw at 20 | Functions

In the early 2000s, it was James Wan and Leigh Whannell’s hit Saw that was credited (or blamed by less generous critics) for popularizing so-called “torture porn.” Raw, visceral and messy, the low-budget police thriller captivated audiences with its gritty, nightmarish torture scenes, spawned ten sequels (and counting), video games, numerous parodies and a new horror icon in Billy. Puppet. But while writers, directors, stars and storylines came and went, editor Kevin Greutert remained the lifeblood of Saw, giving the franchise its signature breakneck pace and frenetic, high-octane editing.

The brainchild of Australian film students James Wan and Leigh Whannell, Saw is a 2004 horror thriller that follows a game of cat and mouse between the police and the “Jigsaw Killer”, who kidnaps his victims and subjects them to deadly “tests” ” ” Told in a complex, intertwined series of overlapping, non-linear plots, Cary Elwes’s Dr. Lawrence Gordon and Leigh Whannell’s Adam are at the center of it all, waking up chained to pipes at opposite ends of a dirty bathtub with a bloody corpse between them. .

It’s a dirty, violent, claustrophobic film with a twist ending, but the editing is where Saw really comes together, as Greutert said in an interview with Letterboxd last year. At a modest hour and 43 minutes, the film moves at a breakneck pace, which Greutert says is by design: “James Wan often talked about the idea of ​​’Never a Boring Thing,’ which sounds obvious, but… I think we’re trying harder than the average film.” to make it move. There’s a very good reason behind every edit I make, even if it’s a very short clip, like there usually is in the movie Saw.

What’s most remarkable about the prevalence and influence of Saw’s trap scenes in the horror genre (and in pop culture in general) is how relatively little of the film’s running time they actually take up. When you think “Saw” you think of grisly traps, buckets of blood and sickening displays of body horror, but “Saw” on the page is basically a police procedural following a game of cat and mouse played by a serial killer. with the police, a la “Se7en”. It’s a chilling chamber drama built on the strength of Cary Elwes’ performance, an eerie slow burn that builds to a stunning twist (“Game Over”) that just happens to be spiced up with an extra pinch of brutality.

But while the violence may come in small, concentrated doses (at least in the original Saw ), the twisted innovation of Wan’s trap designs coupled with Greutert’s chaotic, fast-paced editing makes way for a purely unsettling viewing experience. someone is desperately trying to escape Jigsaw’s trap. And while the franchise has no shortage of chilling traps that highlight Greyrert’s penchant for quick cuts, reusing footage and breaking continuity, no trap is a better showcase of Greyrert’s distinctive style of editing the Saw films than the nightmare that started it all back bear trap.

The reverse bear trap carried by Shawnee Smith’s ill-fated heroine Amanda is the first time we’ve seen one of Jigsaw’s anomalous creations at work in real time, reproduced in great detail as Dr. Gordon and the audience watch Amanda tell the police what happened . . Created by Stuart Prine and redesigned by Wan and special effects supervisor Thomas Bellissimo, the reverse bear trap is terrifying in its own right—even in a vacuum, watching it swing open and shred the head of a foam mannequin is breathtaking.

But Amanda is not in a vacuum. She wakes up broken and tied to a chair in production designer Julie Berghoff’s dirty, dirty world with the taste of “blood and metal” in her mouth—and as the countdown begins, Saw picks up the pace. As Smith writhes and struggles, the camera spins in dizzying, discordant circles, quick cuts and sudden zooms that fly by to the sounds of nu metal.

Time moves differently in the Jigsaw games, and Greutert makes the minutes last as excruciatingly as possible, speeding up and slowing down footage, reusing and intercutting clips to make 60 seconds feel like a lifetime. But just when the nightmare seems like it will never end, the trap ends as quickly as it began, and Greutert’s outlandish tendencies fade into the background until another victim needs to be punished.

As one of the progenitors of the “torture porn” subgenre, the franchise has often been accused of reveling in excessive violence in lieu of plot – and while that’s certainly true of some of the later installments, Greutert and Wang use gore in the first installment. The “saw” is deliberate and paired by necessity.

While later specials and director’s cuts feature extensive carnage, the original theatrical cut of Saw leans on the shock value of self-mutilation and the power of performances from Cary Elwes and Shawnee Smith instead of a tidal wave of gore. There are splashes of blood when Amanda searches for the key to her freedom in a man’s stomach or Dr. Gordon chops off his leg, but it’s the pacing and the sense of desperation rather than the carnage that makes Saw’s early traps so terrifying. .

Of course, not all Saw films are created equal. Once Leigh Whannell left as writer after Saw III, the franchise began to earn its current reputation for excess—excessive plot twists, excessive gore, and excessive flashbacks. But even if Saw 4-9 is more successful than previous installments, even the weaker installments have their charm and cult following, thanks in large part to Greutert, who remains the franchise’s editor on all but one. from the Saw films.

While the nuances and novelty that made the first Saw such a groundbreaking horror film begin to wane as the series progresses, Greutert continues to provide the type of top-notch speed and immediate editing that made the early trap scenes so memorable, but cranked up to eleven. The transitions become so outlandish that they border on the comical, as if the franchise itself realized how convoluted and intertwined its plot reels had become and instead decided to devote itself wholeheartedly to the spectacle – hence Saw 3D.

Not to downplay the importance of Greutert’s presence in the DNA of the Saw series, it’s worth mentioning that Spiral: From the Book of Saw, the Saw movie that is least similar to the franchise’s home style, is the only installment in which Greutert was not the main character. editor. When Greutert finally returned to the director’s chair (and editor’s quarters) with Saw X, it marked the beginning of what could optimistically be called a new golden age for the series.

Under Greutert’s direction, Saw X received the best critical reception in the history of the franchise and performed amazingly at the box office. But as well as returning the Saw films to the most critically acclaimed and culturally significant films they’ve ever been, Saw X is also a testament to how decades spent in the dirty green world of Saw have helped take the pulse. captures the tone and guts of the Saw movie in a way that few others do.

It’s his deep familiarity with the franchise that made Saw X such a success, particularly among longtime fans—Greutert places the narrative smack dab in the middle of Saw’s convoluted timeline, much like previous installments, but actively works to subvert the mold. and the plot twists that fans have come to expect from the films.

Especially in a film industry where so-called “heightened horror” is becoming the status quo, it’s worth wondering how a scrappy franchise that seemingly epitomizes a subgenre that went out of fashion 10 years ago continues to find success. Even with its storytelling struggles, the Saw franchise (led by Kevin Greutert) continues to prove itself to be the cockroach of the horror world, releasing bold, brazen, gory new installments with no end in sight.