Halloween has rolled around again and with it, yet another Saw movie. As part of their advertising strategy the producers of the Saw movies have always chosen to release their movies in a time where people are looking for a scare. This feeling of renewed enjoyment of gore, horror, and freight boosts their sales. Surprisingly the Saw movies have reached their 6th sequel while still maintaining a fair amount of public interest. This is a large achievement as most movies only make it to one or two sequels before interest dies and the movies can no longer turn a profit. Although there does seem to be a pattern among horror movies. Many films like Friday the 13th or the Jason films, or even Freddie Krueger have reached numerous sequels while still maintaining public interest. Even if this interest has dwindled considerably new movies are still created. Perhaps this is because of the ease of creating a horror film. Insert one psycho killer who has already been created for you. Second, bring the villain back to life if he had previously been killed (usually not to difficult because they are often invincible). And then have them kill a lot of people. Indeed this is an extremely simplistic version of the story line but it is a repeatable process that producers have followed to create numerous sequels. Perhaps this is why Saw has survived this long and can still make you cringe. Originally the Saw films were such a huge success firstly because they captivated audiences, but secondly because of how extremely inexpensive they were to produce. They took place in only one or two rooms throughout the film with only a few actors (one of which was actually the producer). As a result the majority of the money earned by the film was completely profit. The Saw films have continued to follow this formula and perhaps this is why they are still able to turn a profit despite some dwindling interest.
-Matthew Cloud
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I can't believe they have made so many saw movies in such a short amount of time. When you look back at most of the horror movies that have over five sequals, most of them came out in the early or mid ninties and the movies are still being produced where as saw came out in the early two thousands. It's an interesting horror movie with the idea that a guy who is messed up enough to kill people actually wants to make people value their lives more by putting them through a series of test where they cann escape death. He always picks victims like smokers, emos that cut themselves or reckless people that put their lives in danger. I haven't saw past the third movie but I'm guessing the reason it's so successful is because it puts a really interesting twist on the horror genre.
ReplyDeleteI can not believe that they continue making this series if you will. I have seen everyone and sometimes I don't know why. They continue to get worse and worse but once you have watched enough of them it's almost like you have to finish all of them. So I will definitely be seeing that movie at some point.
ReplyDeleteI find it hard to believe they continue this series as well. The first movie was great but I haven't been as interested in the following movies. They are now just about finding the most creative and gruesome way in which they can kill someone. The first one had a great twist and was a completely new type of horror movie. They are becoming too repetitive and I find hard to distinguish between the newer ones. But as it is a simple strategy and an easy way to make a profit each year I can see why they keep them coming.
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