MovieChat Forums > Saw (2004) Discussion > What broke the franchise for me

What broke the franchise for me

posted 3 years ago by RedbullSW1 (9)
3 replies | jump to latest

I love the first film like many. I do still to this day have a lot of fun with the second one. After that the franchise is pretty much all garbage for all I care. I do appreciate them in a guilty pleasure kind of way but it is definitely bad.

But the biggest problem of the sequels IMO is the steer away from the psychological horror to a more gruesome, imediate, graphic and quick response horror.

What works in the first movie is the slow burn. The games in the sequels last a couple of minutes while most of the games in the first one last for hours or even days. It's that kind of horror that I'm mostly interested in, especially because then you're able to put yourself in the position of the victim and ask yourself what would you do.

[–] SisterSuzy101 (349) 3 years ago

Nah, I feel like the franchise as a whole is much more fun while the first film is a bit mediocre.
I’ve listed reasons here: https://moviechat.org/tt0387564/Saw/5ef9945d928fdc5f84fcdf40/Anyone-else-prefer-the-sequels

[–] TheLovelyAnomaly (619) 3 years ago

I'm with you 100%. The first is the best. The second is pretty solid. It has a great twist for sure, and I appreciate that John gets more screen time. What prevents it from being on par with the first for me is, mainly, the characters. You got a chance to know and feel for Adam and Gordon, whereas most of the people in the gas house--Laura, Addison, and Gus especially--were pretty much just fodder. Plus, I knew going in that almost all, if not all, of them were going to die. But did they have to die so stupidly? Adam and Gordon tried to piece their game together and figure out ways to get out. The people in the gas house just argued and wandered around. Yeah, I know, they were ex-cons, but still. As for Saw III, it had potential, especially with the dead son angle, but I ended up very disappointed in Amanda's arc and I don't think a single character from the franchise irritated me as much as Jeff. The fourth movie was just confusing, and from then on I felt the series got convoluted, too trap-heavy, and too light on the psychological aspect that added balance to the violence.

That said, the sixth installment wasn't too shabby. It wasn't great, but I think it surpassed IV and V by about a mile.

[–] horroreporter (231) 3 years ago

1 and 2 should have been the last