Let me start this off by saying that I love James Wan, I am his biggest fan. I watch all his movies that are released and I cannot wait for the next conjuring movie. However I don’t like any of the ‘Saw’ movies he has directed. I’m not opposed to gore, but I think that Saw is okay but not the best. Its gore for the sake of gore, it lacks a storyline and just generally has no likeable characters.
I’m not saying Saw is a horrible horror film but to be making $1 billion in the box office is crazy. It’s movie that lacks everything but blood and generally is a terrible watch. I think that the Saw franchise could be made better in various ways but most importantly it most have a more effective storyline. I think that the actual movie lacks plot, and the escape room sort of feel gets tedious after a while.
Comparatively the film “Terrifier”, is another movie which has a lot of gore however, I don’t know much about this franchise other than the newest movie. I can say that this movie is almost the same as Saw (a bit more gory which isn’t a plus for me) but it has one key factor that makes it more likeable, a character. Most of the people in the movie don’t have much to them but Art the Clown does. You know what type of character Art is and that’s what makes Terrifier a better watch than Saw. Art is crazy and has no reason to do what he has done, but he is likeable and at times funny. While in Saw, the main antagonist, Jigsaw has a motive but he’s not likable, and the movies are overdone. I don’t want to say that Terrifier is a better movie when they’re both pretty similar, but characterisation is the distinct difference as to why Terrifier was a better watch.
The first Saw movie was good (sorta), but all the movies after I found to be a struggle to finish cause they’re not scary, they’re just gross. The third Saw movie was by far the worst, but the franchise has slowly gotten better. Despite this it still isn’t an amazing horror movie that I would recommend to anyone.
James Wan the director of the Saw movies is an amazing director and probably my favourite. I feel that he is known for being able to create suspense without having to ensue extreme violence, but I feel that his ability to build tension is lost within the gore of this film. In the Insidious films, Wan used many different techniques to shape the climax whilst them being incredibly ingenious and specific to the movie and I feel that Saw fails to elevate the suspense. So, to someone who doesn’t watch a lot of horror or someone who doesn’t watch older horror the Saw and Terrifier may seem completely original, but they follow the same plot line of many older horror movies from the 80’s. What I’m getting at is that gore centred movies are overrated because they are not scary, just gross and that’s not all that the horror genre is about.
