Call me a wuss, but I just failed to watch Saw. Possible aggravating factors:
It's night.
I'm alone.
I have to make it pretty dark in here to see the screen well.
I was sitting about a foot and a half from the screen.
I was wearing headphones.
Certainly, there is nothing about it that is comforting, and it doesn't let up. Honestly, after half an hour, I needed fresh air and cold water or I was going to throw up. What bothered me so much, I think, was the same thing that bothered me about House of 1000 Corpses and the guy getting his hand cut off in Candyman: when people know they are going to get maimed, and they can see it coming, but there's nothing they can do about it. That's what gets me right in the gut more than anything. That's what makes me contort in my seat, what makes my bones seem frail and my tendons seem dried up and brittle.
Furthermore, it was done up in the kind of filthy, squalid, brutal aesthetic that was done so well in Seven (another movie that made me writhe with nausea) and the television series Millennium (which seemed to me to have so much potential that was ignored or squandered). It's a visual feel that effectively inspires revulsion and hopelessness. James Wan did an amazing job. In case anyone missed it, Daniel Robert Epstein interviewed him about the movie last year.
I wish I had more to say, but like I said, I didn't watch much of it. Maybe if I get the guts to finish it, I'll come back here and update.
It's night.
I'm alone.
I have to make it pretty dark in here to see the screen well.
I was sitting about a foot and a half from the screen.
I was wearing headphones.
Certainly, there is nothing about it that is comforting, and it doesn't let up. Honestly, after half an hour, I needed fresh air and cold water or I was going to throw up. What bothered me so much, I think, was the same thing that bothered me about House of 1000 Corpses and the guy getting his hand cut off in Candyman: when people know they are going to get maimed, and they can see it coming, but there's nothing they can do about it. That's what gets me right in the gut more than anything. That's what makes me contort in my seat, what makes my bones seem frail and my tendons seem dried up and brittle.
Furthermore, it was done up in the kind of filthy, squalid, brutal aesthetic that was done so well in Seven (another movie that made me writhe with nausea) and the television series Millennium (which seemed to me to have so much potential that was ignored or squandered). It's a visual feel that effectively inspires revulsion and hopelessness. James Wan did an amazing job. In case anyone missed it, Daniel Robert Epstein interviewed him about the movie last year.
I wish I had more to say, but like I said, I didn't watch much of it. Maybe if I get the guts to finish it, I'll come back here and update.
VIEW 7 of 7 COMMENTS
strangex:
Don't listen to these fuckers, good old sk00l gore-thriller. You know, for kids.
wren:
I watched Ringu in the dark at night by myself and it was a huge mistake. 