Dealing with the End of the Saw Franchise

Not too long ago, Deth Banger gave us a retrospective on the Saw franchise reminding me that the series was finished.  I thought that was kind of impeccable timing since I’ve finally just now gotten to watch the FINAL installment of the franchise when it all hit me like a ton of bricks.

There isn’t going to be another Saw movie this year….

…. Or possibly ever again…..

…..and something seems… off….

That saddens me since we won’t have a new Saw movie to complement our most favoritest time of the year for the first time in the past 7 years.  Every year since 2004 a new Saw film was rushed into theaters on a yearlong turn around to capitalize on the time of the year when audiences want to be scared the most.  It’s no surprise that The Saw movies have made big bank at the box office (416 Million, that’s just the theatrical gross) despite what seems to be a popular opinion that horror fans hate this franchise.  As we all know money isn’t a proper gauge on telling what a quality franchise is.   This of course never stops a Hollywood studio from churning out a product until they have bled it for all its worth.  Which is what kind of confuses me about the Saw franchise.   We are talking about a half a billion dollar franchise that everyone is just going to walk away from?

The filmmakers, the studio, and the movie title for the last installment (The Final Chapter) all point to a resounding agreement that the films have run its course and at this point, the respectable series would now conclude.  If this all sounds familiar to you, don’t be alarmed or continue thinking that the voices in your heard are actually other people.  Think back to a few of our favorite franchises ever such as Friday the 13^th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Halloween.

Each of those horror franchise heavy hitters had an installment that said it was the Final movie in the series and every single one of them made more sequels.  And it’s not just the “oh well I know we said we killed them, but we’ll bring them back for one more hurrah.”  Oh hell no.  A Nightmare on Elm Street said that the six film (very assuredly titled “Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare) was the end yet somehow three more movies came out.  Friday the 13^th said that the fourth movie was “The Final Chapter” while they would go on to make 8 more god damn movies.  Halloween on the other hand actually killed off the main character and didn’t even put him in one of the films associated with the series to try and get rid of him, but the fans wanted more so 7 more Michael Myers staring movies would come up to the screen 7 more times as of today.

It may sound like I’m complaining and I’ll admit that my mediocre writing is taking you in a direction where I’m about to say “there are no original horror movies anymore”.  I’ve done that before, and you all already know that so really what is the point?  The point of this paper is to show all of you who are sad that the Saw series is coming to an end that it won’t be long before we are hearing about the return of Jigsaw coming back into theaters to scare the crap out of us.  I know what you are thinking, and yes I think you have a very good point there.  The Saw films ended on a terrible note.  The seventh and final installment titled Saw 3D: the Final Chapter (really you are going to put 3 in the title?) was by far the worst film of the entire series.  The characters were ridiculous, the plot went from being unrealistically fun to extremely unrealistically boring, and the traps were physically impossible for a human to make and implement.  This is coming from someone who wrote a lot of good stuff about the Saw franchise.

That being said, this series can absolutely not end with this film.  What they need to do is take a few years off and let the series just sit there a little bit to get some perspective.  What was done right?  What did we screw up?  What happened to that hot chick that got her scalp ripped off in that one hair pulling trap?  All of these are extremely important questions that need to be addressed before a story is even pitched to a coke fueled executive who survives on strictly bad decisions.  With the aid of time and careful thought this series could be rebooted, and it could come back to glory… ya know every though Jigsaw’s story ended when he died, like four movies ago.

The series can thrive again, but it’s going to take some love and some care from people who want to make a good movie rather than a quick buck.  I’ve said it before and even after the last Saw film (which was really bad) the series still deserves a spot next to Jason, Freddy, and Michael Myers.  I know you may be quick to jump down my throat on that one, but then I’ll bring up the Dream Child, The Return of Michael Myers, Jason goes to Hell, Jason goes to Manhattan, and even The Season of the Witch.  They weren’t all gems of cinematic relevance but that doesn’t matter to us because we are fans and we love them for other reasons.  I really hope that someday SAW can give me a good reason to love it again.