Saw One Hundred and Thirty One Review

Review of Saw CXXXI
Taking our beloved Franchise to a whole new level
by
Coleslaw Lem


With this the latest in the much beloved film franchise, we are given a whole new Saw experience to relish and to cherish. The first hundred or so killings are the typical Saw fare: cathartic, nail-biting and classic in their approach. They are there to satisfy the more typical, unreflexive fan who is just there for the thrills, the nostalgia, the fun of a Saw sequel. When the school bus is slowly crushed in the ironically named Jaws of Strife (they are powered by the bus’ occupants squabbling about who should live), we are brought back to a similar scene in Saw XXIV (an instant classic that you should order if you have not already) that is many a fan’s initiation into true Saw-mania. There are many homage scenes like this in the first three hours. Unless you are a diehard fan you can skip some of them (but not all -- they do set the mood) for a BRB. The pregnancy explosion, the liquefied zoo, the choir scalping, and of course the Flame Bunny/Geriatric piece ( a homage to the power of thirty at least) all fall into this comfortable, happy category.

It’s after this comfortable beginning that the new stuff begins. Ever since Saw went into triple digits its gained a certain freedom. With the deification of the protagonist Krammer into the being Thanax, we gained a greater freedom. Is Thanax a god, is he insane, are we seeing his powers or just his hallucinations? Is there a difference? Sequels 107 to 116 all deal with this question in its various forms, and by now we do not to worry about it. The rules of the game have been set, we can interpret what we see, hear, feel (sometimes smell) however we wish. All the interpretations have been blessed. All interpretations are equal. Or as Thanax itself says in 115’s wonderful nunnery scene: “It’s all good.” (Yes, I subscribe the the theory that he is saying “good” and not “God.”)

So where is there left to go? Many of the post-116 films were (even I have to admit) a bit lost, but 131 solves all of that. It’s a whole new ball game. I must warn the reader that what follows is a spoiler alert. You may want to stop reading and spend the weekend watching the film.
The first aspect that we are in truly new territory is the fact that a spoiler alert is even possible. Did not the glorious 109-116 run eliminate the need for plot, freeing us up for the pure delight of the spectacle? Fear not dear Saw-fan, we have not gone back to some dull linear narrative, the spoiler is not about what happens but about how it happens for what you will see and experience and feel in the this all-new and near genius level epic is itself epic.

For me it began in the fourth hour as I noticed a certain new kind of familiarity. The scenes seemed all too familiar, but checking my in-line database, I could find no reason for this familiarity. There had never been a triple cheer-leader-flaming-monk catapult number before. I could find not even fid a reference to a scene that had a slow dolly shot of a blood cloud drifting along a children’s hospital ward. No, this was all new: the razor blade truck, the acid squirt guns, the guano suffocation, all new material here. What then was familiar? I pondered this until I saw my third-grade teacher in one scene, and then I realized what I was witnessing: my life was up there.

Facial reconstruction software, special optical lasers, the world wide observation surveillance network, all of this is being used in 131 to create a unique experience. In a sense it is a real experience. As the film progressed I recognized more and more, my old street, my current street, friends, neighbors and finally family. They are all at the mercy of Thanax in this latest film. You sit and you watch your life slowly being torn apart. First strangers, then friends, then mom and dad, the kids, until finally you are alone. It’s just you, and then, yes dear reader, then it’s you up there on the screen being pulled apart.

The final torture scene has been different each time I have seen it. It is never the same, it is always new, it always me, sometimes I am just the victim, sometime I am the victim and Thanax, but each time I sit there, bladder ready to pop, transfixed as I see myself as the star in this the greatest film of all time. Don’t listen to these silly news reports, do not worry about what you might do afterwards, go, do not walk, do not run, FLY to the theater if you have not already and be prepared for the ride of your life. What SawCorp will do next month for 132 I have not foggiest, rumors abound. I am praying for a musical.