I feel sorry for the modern generation. They are missing out on something special, and it's all thanks to the SAW films. That overly convoluted gore filled multi-sequeled beast with its surgically correct gore and twisting narrative, that seemingly introduces new character's in each film that we are supposed to accept as hiving been a part of the narrative from the start despite there obvious absence in earlier episodes.
The SAW films are generally classed as being horror, or an off shoot of horror described as goreno or torture porn. To be honest i would just call them torture because boy are they boring. There's no real suspense just spectacle. These films exist to just push the boundary of taste and the make up artists art, and hats off to the effects team they have successfully managed to pull off what i am imagining are some of the most realistic effects in regards to damage to the human body that i have ever seen in a film. Not being a doctor or surgeon I'm guessing at this but I'm sure most laymen would say the same thing. the problem is i know everyone is going to die, there's no suspense by now we know that each character placed in the ingenious killing machine will die, it will be messy and it will be photo realistic, all we've got to do as an audience is sit back and watch the meat fly.
And for me that's where the modern generation is missing out. its a mixture of technology and relaxation of censorship that have allowed what i regard as the death of the true horror film to take place! i know these are strong words but now all people seem to be interested with when it comes to a horror film is, how bloody is it and how many deaths there are. It's a sad state of affairs.
Now i for one am against censorship i always have been, i believe that an adult human being can decide for himself what they can and cannot see. we are capable of making our own decisions. however the softening of censorship has led to a breed of film makers who are lazy, they look at the old masterpieces of the past and think that they are about blood and gore, they take new technology and create films that are little more than explosions in a butchers shop. This all started in the eighties with the advent of the home video, where cheap horror films with little or no story would be made, films that were no more than killings and tits. Admittedly amidst these films there are rare gems. Master strokes like 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' (yeah i know 70s) Surprisingly low on gore; in fact there's practically none, instead this film is about atmosphere, it creates an air of tension and unease through the use camera work, sound, and crazy set design. As well as the actors performances. This film is pure horror. However I'm sure if you were to show it to a member of the modern generation they would just say 'i prefer the remake its got more blood in it' completely missing the point. My appreciation of what i would call a horror film i believe comes from my childhood.
Now don't get me wrong I'm not against blood and gore, but i feel it is being used in the wrong way now, if you fill a film with blood and guts it's no longer shocking or exciting its just there. It's the Babara Windsor's boob effect. As a young Male i appreciated the moment in 'Carry on Camping' and 'Carry On Dick' where Barbara Windsor's boobs make a brief screen appearance, the fact that it is just a fleeting glimpse made it better. I would have been downright bored of her milk pillows if she spent the film flashing them at every inopportune moment, what would be the point. SAW has that problem each SAW film starts off with someone getting butchered, there's no build up to anything, it's just a case of "here you go have some blood and suffering straight away, don't worry to much there will be more on the way in a moment after we've gotten a bit of the boring laughable plot development out of the way. Please bare with us thank you for you re time".
when i was growing up we had the video nasties list (Texas Chainsaw Massacre was on this) and an overly militant BBFC striving to do their very best to stop the degradation of modern society through film violence, censoring films left right and centre; essentially ruining them, and leaving most of us little choice but to watch the films that they deemed acceptable for us to watch, this ultimately led me into the arms of Hammer.
The hammer films had suffered in their time being classified as X but they were left alone no scenes were cut, which was what was important to me.
The Hammer films still had Gore and they still used it for spectacle but what was more important was the way that they used it. They used it for the shock moment. Here you would have thirty minuets of nothing then all of a sudden Frankensteins monster was shot in the face, his eye exploding in lurid red blood, giving me a thrill and a shock at the same time. instead in SAW our shock is how increasingly nasty the traps are. I spent many a happy night as a youth watching Hammer films in the early hours of the morning broadcast on BBC2 as a part of some horror season. Marveling at the stories and the suspense enhanced by the presence of the odd flourish of bloody violence. Dracula's fangs dripping are a more effective tool of fear than a man having his arms and legs sequentially broken by a large metal contraption.
But forget Hammer for now what about Halloween, a pure masterpiece, lots of killings, but almost no blood. Instead the violence of the acts is where the horror is. The relentlessness of Micheal Myers, the fact that he just appears anywhere. That's a more modern horror and more pure than a SAW film. We lost our way somewhere and i think that the modern generation will never know what a true horror film is, because when you present them with one they'll merely turn around and say "not much blood is there"?
Its sad : (
