Film Review Saw 3

Film Review Saw 3

The saw movies despite devolving to pure torture porn in the later films still holds a soft spot in my heart. The first few movies use many clever practical effects and settings due to their comparatively low budget. Using fast moving camera switches of close ups allows the film makers to convey gory horrific scenes without actually showing much of it.
Context:
The saw movies come from a background of low budget college level films. The original saw idea was a feature length development of a ten minute short film (created by James Wan and Leigh Whannell) of the same name in which Leigh Whannell plays David, a victim of the jigsaw killer. The short was simply a demonstration of the concept created to pitch the idea to production companies hence why a director plays the lead role. However due to low budget Leigh Whannell would also go on to play a lead role in the first saw film. Budget is a large part of what impresses me about the saw movies, the first one in particular, because I find it somewhat inspiring that it is possible to create a very effective atmosphere without high budget special effects. You can observe many of the ways they save money in saw simply by watching the first movie. For example, much of the film takes place in a single room which saves money on renting multiple locations, They also use one of the directors (Leigh Whannell) as part of the cast which saves money on paying professional actors and (despite their gory reputation) most of violence and gore happens off screen to save money on effects and those effects that they do use are done practically to avoid having to use expensive computer generated imagery.
Moving on to saw 3 despite the fact that after the success of the first 2 films the budget has greatly increased, they still manage to do a lot with a little by reusing locations and keeping the cast small.
Effects:
Special effects are a key part of modern film making and as the industry has evolved so have the complexity of the effects in the saw franchise. The first movie opted for the ‘less is more’ approach much like Ridley Scott’s first Alien movie which only gives the audience brief glimpses at the deadly xenomorph. This tactic is highly effective as by not showing the full picture it allows the audiences imaginations to run wild with gory and frightening images of their own making. I prefer this as I feel that showing an audience too much makes the viewing experience too easy. It is far more enjoyable, in my opinion, as a viewer if you are allowed to create your own mental imagery of a horrific event rather than being shown it and realising it’s not as bad as you thought. However, this is not me arguing against practical effects. As the saw movies went on they got a bigger budget which allowed them to invest in the use of practical effects to fully visually represent the detail of these gory scenes. When creating saw 3 practical effects were a big part of development. There is only one use of CGI which allows me to compare the effectiveness of each technique. Practical effects work a lot better especially as in 2006 CGI was not highly realistic. The practical effects are far better as they ground the film in reality. They are especially effective in horror films as unrealistic CGI can easily break the immersion and ruin the experience.

Link to the first saw short film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdzfE8xxQpY


The making of the traps of saw 3. This video is graphic but is fascinating if you’re interested in practical effects: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNFvX6HVYRo

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