For years on the internet and in public conscious, the Saw franchise was crowned the emergence and king of the “torture porn” horror subgenre. I’m not the first to say thats a drastic misrepresentation of both what the franchise seeks to accomplish and what it actually accomplishes.
The phrase “torture porn” is intentionally provocative and reductive, misleading anyone who holds this idea in their head to think that Saw VI is just the sixth round in a “who can die the craziest” arcade game and not an examination of the exploitative American Healthcare system and the violence and pain it doles out behind the piles of paperwork and glossy offices and boardrooms.
That’s what always set the Saw films apart. Yes, I’m biased. I think the Saw films are great (with maybe 1 or 2 exceptions). But underneath the facade of blood, guts, and grimy warehouses and bathrooms, the films are borderline operatic in their storytelling. That feeling the first time you see Donnie Wahlberg has returned from Saw II to sit in a trap for the entirety of Saw IV is euphoric, and its made even better by the fact that its only done to service the development and dissection of Lyriq Bent’s Rigg. As much as they stumbled, they always matched their ambition create insane and visceral kills with their ambition to thread together a massive story with Tobin Bell’s John Kramer at the center, handing out twisted justice and punishment wherever he saw fit. Every new kill or game was a peak into that character’s psyche.
I’m probably preaching to the choir at this point, because in recent years the Saw franchise has become somehow even more popular, peaking with the release of the highly praised Saw X and the promise of its sequels breathing new life into the series. The franchise being labeled torture porn has become something of a fringe talking point now, but that’s not to say there haven’t been other franchises deserving of that qualification.
The first Terrifier film was made in 2016 on a budget of between $35,000-$55,000, and here there wasn’t much of a story to write home about. The film is pretty clearly just a proof-of-concept, as even at 85 minutes it feels stretched to its absolute limits. But Netflix eventually picked it up for distribution and the deranged violence – including sawing a naked woman in half… vertically… from groin to head… painstakingly… – was enough to garner something of a cult following, and in 2019 writer/director/creator Damien Leone confirmed a sequel was in progress.
So alright, the first film was just testing the waters. An idea of an idea. Sure, Art the Clown had been kicking around in Leone’s head since at least 2009, and he was just stretching his legs in the hopes of finding something worth expanding on. Terrifier 2: that’s where he’ll finally find his footing.
Maybe? Maybe a little bit? Not so much. At a staggering 138 minutes, Terrifier 2 crosses the 2 hour mark with nearly 20 minutes to spare and very little excitement to fill the time. The story follows Sienna Shaw as she encounters Art the Clown on his violent rampage through Miles County. I’ll be honest I’m sitting here in my bed writing this in my notes app, struggling the find the words to describe what happens in this movie because its oh so very little.
This is where I start to become concerned with the priorities of the Terrifier creatives. Sure, there are “ideas” like some sort of prophecy manifestation including a savior-esque character her dad created for her (I might be bleeding a little into the third film here, bear with me), but there’s just nothing else. Yeah, the idea gets introduced, and that’s where it ends.
This is a problem they carry over into Terrifier 3, where they introduce heavier topics like coping with PTSD and mental health disorders, how it affects people around you, and how media tries to exploit trauma, but this is where we should all realize that introducing an idea isn’t enough. Yeah, these things come up in the film, like in conversation, but it never leads to anything. Art’s rampage extends to the script, as every potentially exciting emotional storyline is killed by the death of the characters that led that story along.
It goes something like this: Sienna has PTSD, its taking a toll on her and her family, her family dies. A college student wants Sienna on her podcast to talk about her trauma, Sienna gets really mad about it, college student dies. I just summed up the entirety of the film’s two key story elements in two sentences and there was nothing of substance lost between the words. These films are really no different than that of the early slashers they try to visually emulate. Working backwards from the kills and set pieces, with a story in between that only works to carry on to the next kill or set piece.
It’s fine, I’m not saying it’s ridiculous to enjoy these movies. I’m not saying I never smiled or even at all disliked my experience in theater with Terrifier 3. There’s always a counter culture for every culture, and a dissenting opinion for every opinion. Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of people talk about how the Terrifier movies deserve more credit for being about more than just the gore, and I wanted to find a way to speak my mind without running in circles trying to think of things to say about 3 movies that barely have anything to say themselves. In my opinion.
Go watch the Saw films. Enjoy your October.
