I have always found the Saw mythology downright fascinating, regardless of the fact that it's built on buckets of corn syrup blood and entirely-too-extra torture devices. (I mean, there has to be a reason that the franchise spawned seven movies, and the reason can't just be its perpetual use of reverse bear traps.)
With the franchise's long-awaited sequel, Jigsaw, headed our way this Halloween, it's worth wondering: What changes will the torture-happy flicks make for 2017? According to the film's directors Peter and Michael Spierig it's going to be less cruel...but just as gross.
For the uninitiated, the basic premise of Saw is that there's a serial killer, Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) who sets up insanely intricate – and definitely deadly – traps for his victims. The traps are intended to maim its victim and/or cause someone else that they are with in the room to die and/or be maimed. The actual point of the horrific traps, other than to gross out the audience, is to make the person suffering appreciate their life a little bit more. (Honestly, a good retreat in Ojai could also accomplish that without all the bloodshed.)
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Of course, if you're watching a Saw movie, gore is exactly what you expect, and things won't be any different with Jigsaw, says the new directing team.
"We’ve got some pretty wild traps in the film — we don’t shy away from the gore," Michael explained in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. "It’s such a perfect Halloween scarefest. It’s perhaps not quite as vicious and more fun, which is something we tried to inject into it. But it’s still full of good fun gore, that’s for sure."
I mean, murdering people is still pretty vicious, so not sure how the movie is going to cut that out of the equation, but, hey — it's all par for the course. The co-director also added that we can look forward to plenty of plot twists.
"[Jigsaw has] got a really great mystery, and there’s very interesting twists. It’s Saw for 2017."
One thing the pair won't speak about? Whether Bell's Jigsaw — a.k.a. John Kramer — who died at the end of the third movie will make an appearance in the film. He's shown up in the others in flashbacks or on videotape, but will he here, when the film is literally named after him?
"The DNA of Tobin Bell is all over this film," Peter revealed to EW, in the most non-answer of all answers.
At least Jigsaw is planning on some surprises in addition to another bout of body horror.
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