Abstract
Jigsaw, the villain in the Saw franchise (2004–2010), has gone down in horror history as a merciful murderer, and even as an ordinary citizen in search of a just judiciary system. The general overlooking of Jigsaw’s abuse of the notion of choice as an excuse for retributive punishment is probably a consequence of a serious gap between what the killer sees as a moral crusade and what is ultimately revealed as a complex technology of disciplinary power, torture and thanatopolitical punishment.
In this chapter, I offer an alternative approach to Jigsaw’s games that focuses on his traps and the role of graphic or explicit sequences. Disputing the pedagogic potential of Saw’s philosophy, I propose we might, instead, gain critical insight from turning to the series’ use of visceral images of torture. I argue that an emphasis on the ways in which viewer enjoyment may be found in the encounter with the films’ thanatopolitical spectacles is necessary in order to rearticulate the academic urgency of the most successful franchise in the history of horror. I conclude by suggesting a few of the possible pleasures to be derived from watching Saw and suggesting that an experiential analysis of fictional violence in studies of extreme cinema is desirable.
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Notes
- 1.
The term, now widely used in specialised publications, was originally coined by David Edelstein (2006). If he initially used it as an umbrella term to describe violent and gory films released up to five years before the publication of his article, torture porn now loosely defines films particularly preoccupied with giving an aesthetic and affective treatment to the portrayal of mutilation. This does not necessarily entail that the films in question necessarily centre around torture, and in the case of Wolf Creek (Greg McLean, 2005) or Borderland (Zev Berman, 2007) torture might be an accessory to the construction of atmospheric suspense or a more general feeling of unease. The most popular exponents of this subgenre of horror are Hostel and the Saw franchise (2004–2010).
- 2.
It is important to note that the director of Funny Games has often expressed the opinion that he did not set out to create a horror film, but an experiment on how to “show the viewer his own position vis-à-vis violence and its portrayal” (Haneke 579). This is interesting for what it might say about torture porn’s self-aware reflectivity.
- 3.
I Spit on Your Grave received a limited theatrical release in the USA, but it was banned in countries like Australia, where the film would have to wait for its DVD release to reach its audience.
- 4.
This gory exaction of violence and its panning by the media is perhaps what has driven recent histories of horror to ignore torture porn or deem it “the worst mainstream Hollywood had to offer” (Rigby 262).
- 5.
See for example, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Marcus Nispel, 2003), The Hills Have Eyes (Alexandre Aja, 2006) or The Last House on the Left (Denis Iliadis, 2009). The last decade has even seen films paying direct homage to exploitation cinema, as is the case with Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s Grindhouse (2007).
- 6.
Literature on this abounds, but a good example is Cyndy Hendershot’s reading of 1950s and 60s horror films as cultural negotiations of the reality of the Cold War (2001).
- 7.
Some critics have also challenged this contextualisation of the films. See Colavito 415–6.
- 8.
This formula, wronged man turns vigilante, is not the exclusive domain of torture porn, and television series like Dexter (2006-present) have been quick to develop sympathetic murderer protagonists who justify their actions by telling themselves they only kill “bad people.”
- 9.
The ludic and immersive quality of Saw’s scaffold has not been lost on its producers, and the franchise has spawned highly profitable side-products like the Saw ride in Thorpe Park or two eponymous video games.
- 10.
I am borrowing this term from Agamben, who opposes it to biopolitics. Thanatopolitics are the type of politics more concerned with the monitoring and controlling of death than the policing of forms of life. A perfect example are fascist or extremist regimes like Nazism.
Films Cited
A Nightmare on Elm Street, A. Dir. Wes Craven. New Line Cinema, 1984
Abominable Dr. Phibes, The (aka Dr. Phibes). Dir. Robert Fuest. Distributors Ltd./MGM EMI/American International England, 1971
Blood Feast. Dir. Herschell Gordon Lewis. Box Office Spectaculars, 1963
Borderland. Dir. Zev Berman. After Dark Films/Lionsgate, 2007
Captivity. Dir. Roland Joffé. Lionsgate/After Dark Films, 2007
Cube. Dir. Vincenzo Natali. Cineplex Odeon Films/Trimark Pictures, 1997. Film.
Funny Games. Dir. Michael Haneke. Attitude Films/Madman Entertainment, 1997
Hostel. Dir. Eli Roth. Screen Gems/Lionsgate, 2005
Hills Have Eyes, The. Dir. Alexandre Aja. Fox Searchlight Pictures, 2006
I Spit on Your Grave. Dir. Steven R. Monroe. Anchor Bay Entertainment, 2010
Last House on the Left, The. Dir. Denis Iliadis. Rogue Pictures, 2009
Saw. Dir. James Wan. Lionsgate, 2004
Saw II. Dir. Darren Lynn Bousman. Lionsgate, 2005
Saw III. Dir. Darren Lynn Bousman. Lionsgate, 2006
Saw IV. Dir. Darren Lynn Bousman. Lionsgate, 2007. Film.
Saw V. Dir. David Hackl. Lionsgate, 2008
Saw VI. Dir. Kevin Greutert. Lionsgate, 2009
Saw 3D (aka Saw: The Final Chapter). Dir. Kevin Greutert. Lionsgate, 2010
Se7en (aka Seven). Dir. David Fincher. New Line Cinema, 1995
Strangers, The. Dir. Bryan Bertino. Rogue Pictures, 2008
Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The. Dir. Marcus Nispel. New Line Cinema/Focus Features, 2003
Them (Ils). Dir. David Moreau and Xavier Palud. Metrodome Distribution, 2006
Tortured, The. Dir. Robert Lieberman. VVS Films, 2009
Turistas (aka Paradise Lost). Dir. John Stockwell. Fox Atomic, 2006
Unthinkable. Dir. Gregor Jordan. Senator US, 2008
Untraceable. Dir. Gregory Hoblit. Screen Gems, 2008
Wolf Creek. Dir. Greg McLean. Darclight Films/Dimension Films, 2005
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Aldana-Reyes, X. (2016). Discipline… But Punish!: Foucault, Agamben and Torture Porn’s Thanotopolitical Scaffold. In: de Valk, M. (eds) Screening the Tortured Body. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-39918-2_4
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