The Spierig Brothers’ Jigsaw
(2017) is the later-made sequel to the previous Saw films. Ten years after the
death of the jigsaw mastermind; John
Kramer, (Tobin Bell) detectives begin to doubt his death after a series of
bodies with distinctive and familiar wounds begin to resurface.
The film follows two different sets of characters and events, which seemingly start to fuse throughout the film. At the start of the film, criminal Edgar Munsen (Josiah Black) is held at gun point by police while he holds up a remote trigger and threatens to press it. Before being shot by the police he activates it, which immediately transitions the setting to an abandoned barn where five survivors are held captive. Attached by helmets with chains that lead to the saw blades in front of each of them, the blades begin to spin and the chain reels them in closer towards them. They first hear the famous voice of Jigsaw, the one behind the twisted and gruesome games that determine life or death. As the characters’ in these games die one after the other, the detectives are introduced to new bodies with death wounds that appear to be the murdered victims we have just seen, without having to tell us this. While the two plots jump between one another as the film goes on and the deaths pile up, there’s something that the creators have done to forge a compelling story, with an inevitable twist that realigns all of the fragmented pieces that are presented to the audience beforehand.
They manage to tell a story that is nonlinear, which when watching at first can easily be perceived as linear. The shift between the survivors in the barn and the detectives discovering the bodies, actually holds a ten year time gap. Throughout the entirety of the movie, this is cleverly covered up and even rules out of possible suggestions, as the storytelling is convincing enough to make the viewer believe that what they’re seeing is all happening together.
With the bodies showing up, it draws any attention away from the fact that there’s a ten year time difference. But eventually it is found out that the bodies examined by the detectives are not the bodies of the survivors we just saw, but they are actually the bodies of different victims who’s deaths completely replicate the ones we have witnessed at the barn. In reality, the bodies showing up are in response to deaths we have not witnessed, of characters we have not even met.
Throughout the spiralling events that follow one another, the detectives must dig deep to discover who is the killer, as medical history reveals that Kramer died years ago. As the film transpires, the killer’s identity leans towards the very group of detectives that are trying to find out who is responsible. This forms a treacherous atmosphere that twists and complicates the mood, which welcomingly invites the viewer to become involved. Why not try and decipher who the murderer is, now that their possible identity has potentially been thinned down ultimately to a much smaller range? This can be considerably generous of the writers to give such a simplifying clue, although what the audience aren’t aware of is the ten year time gap, which changes things drastically.
With the people who we see in the horrific games, the characters each have their own backstories and sins that led them to this life or death fate. Anna (Laura Vandervoort) is the character out of the victims that is automatically set up to be perceived as the heroin. In the first game, the one man that faints to the ground and makes a feeble effort to save himself gets dragged to the blades, then we no longer see him. The other characters in comparison to Anna, are introduced to the story with possessing less heroic roles, and more importantly less innocence. Each character is there for sinning, and at one point or another their sins are shared or discovered to the rest of the group. Nevertheless, for some reason, Anna’s story is very vague and bleak. As the other characters have their stories shown graphically in detail to the audience, they are forced to lose a level of respect or trust for them. Whereas with Anna, as she’s the only one who hasn’t had her story shown with its full truth or graphic details, she’s the only one left to have any ounce of hope for. This set of characters are the ones we are set up to feel more immersed in. Not only this, but you’re left to ask yourself who is the hero/heroin of this film? There isn’t really a clear answer, and with the two different plots going on it could be anybody. This leaves Anna as the most befitting for the role, subconsciously directing our care and attention to her, especially as her character is in tremendous danger from beginning to end. After all characters are slaughtered one by one, in the end remains Anna and Ryan, (Paul Braunstein) who must complete one final task in the attempt to finally escape. With Ryan incapacitated due to the results from a previous task, this gives Anna a much larger benefit. Before the task begins though, the truth is finally revealed about Anna and her sin. When earlier mentioned in the film, she mentions how her husband at the time rolled over in bed and accidentally suffocated their baby while asleep, which is a tragedy that isn’t explored into much further detail. However, the truth reveals that while her baby cried endlessly one night and Anna felt overwhelmed and not in control, she grabbed a pillow and sickeningly suffocated her own baby to death with it, before then placing the body underneath her sleeping husband, framing him. This in itself is already one big twist, as the character we’ve been lead to believe and have faith in, has actually turned out to be the most evil character in the entire film. This now raises the question of who the hero is and what is the point of the film now? What character should be followed? Well, Ryan and Anna end up both dying, due to a selfish and inconsiderate action of Anna’s, when she attempts to shoot Ryan and the shotgun backfires, leaving them both doomed.
Before the two final characters meet their dark fates, John Kramer emerges and shocks as he is clearly still alive. This is absurd as in the same film, his death is mentioned numerous times before this. It is contradictory that just opens up even more doors of curiosity. The twists begin to unfold and the questions begin to be answered shortly after this happens. John Kramer is alive here, simply due to the fact this all just happened ten years in the past. It’s just a subplot to the present day story of the detectives, and the fate of these characters has little relevance to the present day, except just one character. The man who we see unconscious, being forcefully dragged towards the spinning blades at the film’s start, doesn’t get killed. When the camera pans into the next room, it appears unquestionably obvious that he hit the blades and died graphically. Due the fact that the film just started, it could be reasoned with that maybe the creators wanted to ease in with the blood and gore as the film goes on, starting with just suggesting he died instead of showing it. What really happened is that during this, Kramer lets this man free from the chain, then allows him to watch over his work as the games continue. He trains this man and prepares him to eventually be able to carry on the gory, murderous events that he is responsible for, once he is gone. Kramer is aware that death is gaining on him, and he clearly refuses to let his legacy die with him. The man who followed in Kramer’s footsteps is the one who is responsible for the bodies that the detectives are dealing with in the present day. The same character is Logan, (Matt Passmore) one of the members who works alongside the detectives in the hunt for the killer. So it is here where we find out not only who, but also how.
The Spierig Brothers manage to manipulate the audience into thinking about things that aren’t necessary, taking their minds completely away from the main thing. Due to traditional storytelling, linear plots and narrative, we are forced to take in this film as something which it isn’t. This twist could be considered poor, due to the simple fact that the creators purposely pushed the audience in the completely wrong direction instead of dangling it above their heads, which all in all eliminates most chance they might have of figuring out what is going on before the plot twist occurs. The unreliable narrator is at play in this film, although the narration is suggested visually more than through dialogue. Saying this, it is the audience that will trick themselves, as they’ve been led to believe something due to a relative expectation and perception amongst films. Above all, the twist is created carefully and very cleverly, which finally links everything together, brings all of these expanding questions to an end and closes any doors that remain. That in itself, shows that it worked successfully.
The film follows two different sets of characters and events, which seemingly start to fuse throughout the film. At the start of the film, criminal Edgar Munsen (Josiah Black) is held at gun point by police while he holds up a remote trigger and threatens to press it. Before being shot by the police he activates it, which immediately transitions the setting to an abandoned barn where five survivors are held captive. Attached by helmets with chains that lead to the saw blades in front of each of them, the blades begin to spin and the chain reels them in closer towards them. They first hear the famous voice of Jigsaw, the one behind the twisted and gruesome games that determine life or death. As the characters’ in these games die one after the other, the detectives are introduced to new bodies with death wounds that appear to be the murdered victims we have just seen, without having to tell us this. While the two plots jump between one another as the film goes on and the deaths pile up, there’s something that the creators have done to forge a compelling story, with an inevitable twist that realigns all of the fragmented pieces that are presented to the audience beforehand.
They manage to tell a story that is nonlinear, which when watching at first can easily be perceived as linear. The shift between the survivors in the barn and the detectives discovering the bodies, actually holds a ten year time gap. Throughout the entirety of the movie, this is cleverly covered up and even rules out of possible suggestions, as the storytelling is convincing enough to make the viewer believe that what they’re seeing is all happening together.
With the bodies showing up, it draws any attention away from the fact that there’s a ten year time difference. But eventually it is found out that the bodies examined by the detectives are not the bodies of the survivors we just saw, but they are actually the bodies of different victims who’s deaths completely replicate the ones we have witnessed at the barn. In reality, the bodies showing up are in response to deaths we have not witnessed, of characters we have not even met.
Throughout the spiralling events that follow one another, the detectives must dig deep to discover who is the killer, as medical history reveals that Kramer died years ago. As the film transpires, the killer’s identity leans towards the very group of detectives that are trying to find out who is responsible. This forms a treacherous atmosphere that twists and complicates the mood, which welcomingly invites the viewer to become involved. Why not try and decipher who the murderer is, now that their possible identity has potentially been thinned down ultimately to a much smaller range? This can be considerably generous of the writers to give such a simplifying clue, although what the audience aren’t aware of is the ten year time gap, which changes things drastically.
With the people who we see in the horrific games, the characters each have their own backstories and sins that led them to this life or death fate. Anna (Laura Vandervoort) is the character out of the victims that is automatically set up to be perceived as the heroin. In the first game, the one man that faints to the ground and makes a feeble effort to save himself gets dragged to the blades, then we no longer see him. The other characters in comparison to Anna, are introduced to the story with possessing less heroic roles, and more importantly less innocence. Each character is there for sinning, and at one point or another their sins are shared or discovered to the rest of the group. Nevertheless, for some reason, Anna’s story is very vague and bleak. As the other characters have their stories shown graphically in detail to the audience, they are forced to lose a level of respect or trust for them. Whereas with Anna, as she’s the only one who hasn’t had her story shown with its full truth or graphic details, she’s the only one left to have any ounce of hope for. This set of characters are the ones we are set up to feel more immersed in. Not only this, but you’re left to ask yourself who is the hero/heroin of this film? There isn’t really a clear answer, and with the two different plots going on it could be anybody. This leaves Anna as the most befitting for the role, subconsciously directing our care and attention to her, especially as her character is in tremendous danger from beginning to end. After all characters are slaughtered one by one, in the end remains Anna and Ryan, (Paul Braunstein) who must complete one final task in the attempt to finally escape. With Ryan incapacitated due to the results from a previous task, this gives Anna a much larger benefit. Before the task begins though, the truth is finally revealed about Anna and her sin. When earlier mentioned in the film, she mentions how her husband at the time rolled over in bed and accidentally suffocated their baby while asleep, which is a tragedy that isn’t explored into much further detail. However, the truth reveals that while her baby cried endlessly one night and Anna felt overwhelmed and not in control, she grabbed a pillow and sickeningly suffocated her own baby to death with it, before then placing the body underneath her sleeping husband, framing him. This in itself is already one big twist, as the character we’ve been lead to believe and have faith in, has actually turned out to be the most evil character in the entire film. This now raises the question of who the hero is and what is the point of the film now? What character should be followed? Well, Ryan and Anna end up both dying, due to a selfish and inconsiderate action of Anna’s, when she attempts to shoot Ryan and the shotgun backfires, leaving them both doomed.
Before the two final characters meet their dark fates, John Kramer emerges and shocks as he is clearly still alive. This is absurd as in the same film, his death is mentioned numerous times before this. It is contradictory that just opens up even more doors of curiosity. The twists begin to unfold and the questions begin to be answered shortly after this happens. John Kramer is alive here, simply due to the fact this all just happened ten years in the past. It’s just a subplot to the present day story of the detectives, and the fate of these characters has little relevance to the present day, except just one character. The man who we see unconscious, being forcefully dragged towards the spinning blades at the film’s start, doesn’t get killed. When the camera pans into the next room, it appears unquestionably obvious that he hit the blades and died graphically. Due the fact that the film just started, it could be reasoned with that maybe the creators wanted to ease in with the blood and gore as the film goes on, starting with just suggesting he died instead of showing it. What really happened is that during this, Kramer lets this man free from the chain, then allows him to watch over his work as the games continue. He trains this man and prepares him to eventually be able to carry on the gory, murderous events that he is responsible for, once he is gone. Kramer is aware that death is gaining on him, and he clearly refuses to let his legacy die with him. The man who followed in Kramer’s footsteps is the one who is responsible for the bodies that the detectives are dealing with in the present day. The same character is Logan, (Matt Passmore) one of the members who works alongside the detectives in the hunt for the killer. So it is here where we find out not only who, but also how.
The Spierig Brothers manage to manipulate the audience into thinking about things that aren’t necessary, taking their minds completely away from the main thing. Due to traditional storytelling, linear plots and narrative, we are forced to take in this film as something which it isn’t. This twist could be considered poor, due to the simple fact that the creators purposely pushed the audience in the completely wrong direction instead of dangling it above their heads, which all in all eliminates most chance they might have of figuring out what is going on before the plot twist occurs. The unreliable narrator is at play in this film, although the narration is suggested visually more than through dialogue. Saying this, it is the audience that will trick themselves, as they’ve been led to believe something due to a relative expectation and perception amongst films. Above all, the twist is created carefully and very cleverly, which finally links everything together, brings all of these expanding questions to an end and closes any doors that remain. That in itself, shows that it worked successfully.
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