Saw (franchise)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The franchise revolves around the fictional character of John Kramer, also called the "Jigsaw Killer" or simply "Jigsaw". He was introduced briefly in Saw and developed in more detail in Saw II. Rather than killing his victims outright, Jigsaw traps them in situations that he calls "tests" or "games" to test their will to live through physical or psychological torture. Despite the fact that John was murdered in Saw III, the films continue to focus on the posthumous influence of the Jigsaw Killer and his apprentices by exploring his character via flashbacks.
The film series as a whole has received mixed to negative reviews by critics, but has been a financial success at the box office. While the films are often compared to Hostel and classified as torture porn by critics, the creators of Saw disagree with the term "torture porn". Writer Luke Y. Thompson of OC Weekly argued that, unlike Hostel, the Saw films actually have less torture than most in the sense of sadism or masochism, as Jigsaw believes that those who survive his methods will be stronger people for it. He called him a kind of a (deranged) philanthropist.
Premise
The plot of the series revolves around the Jigsaw Killer, a dying vigilante who kidnaps his victims and places them in deadly traps to test them and give them an opportunity to repent from their former lifestyle in which they took their lives for granted. The films typically consist of several small traps that are resolved within a short length of time and lay foundation for a larger trap which occupies most of the time of the movie. Each movie tends to conclude with a twist-ending that wraps things up, but also creates more questions to be answered in the following film.
