The Best Director

Chapter 263 Saw

Time quietly moved into the end of October. “Step Up” failed to remain the North American box office champion for the week of October 24-30, ranking second with a gross of $21.94 million, and its total box office surpassed $58.52 million; the newly released parody comedy “Scary Movie 3” topped the list with $50.52 million, continuing the series’ style of spoofing popular hits like the American version of “The Ring,” “The Matrix Reloaded,” “The Lord of the Rings,” “Harry Potter” series, and others.

In the youth demographic, the sensational Wang Yang and his movies could not escape parody, with last year’s hits “District 9” and “The Hangover” becoming the material for the silver screen, truly giving the fans a good laugh.

The new weekend arrived alongside Halloween’s eve on October 31, filled with either silly or thrilling atmosphere, but in the bustling cinemas, only one new film was released on a large scale, the fiery R-rated horror film “Saw,” which landed in 2,467 theaters.

The horror film declared a production cost of only $3 million and took only one and a half months to move from planning to wrap-up last September. This is the directorial debut of 26-year-old Malaysian Chinese director James Wan, as well as the co-producer, screenwriter, and lead actor Leigh Whannell, who was equally unknown.

This is the typical low-budget B-grade film, where movie companies usually “try their luck” with them, investing little in promotional costs so that even if they make a loss, it won’t be much. However, clearly, the studio had the utmost confidence in “Saw,” not only announcing a sequel before its release but also sparing no effort in promotion, with the official website, Wang Yang’s praise, the Sundance Film Festival, and scream fests…

Even though it didn’t cost much over the past year, “Saw” had already made a loud name among horror film fans, earning the reputation as their “long-awaited” work. Many people paired it with the newly remade “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,” creating a buzz of chainsaw vs chainsaw. What made this chainsaw stand out? Had “horror master” Wang Yang been deceiving people? That day scores of hard-core horror fans went into theaters seeking scares.

“The sun is shining on your ass, Adam. You might want to know where this place is? Let me tell you, this is where you are likely to rest forever.” “Dr. Gordon, your daily job is to tell the patients ‘sorry, I have done my best’ while watching them suffer indifferently and watching them die, then watch their families in agony. Today you will become the Grim Reaper. The goal of this game is to definitely kill Adam before 6 o’clock!” … “I want to play a game.” “Life or death, it’s in your hands!” …

The large screening room was fully occupied, with the fans filling up the first show. Watching the bloody amputation on the screen and listening to the wrenching screams, the room fell silent except for some elongated breaths, as almost every viewer faintly heard their own heartbeats getting louder.

“Oh my god, this is so twisted…” Many of the female partners in couples frowned and grimaced uncomfortably, grabbing their boyfriends’ arms, which made many men who pretended “I’m not afraid at all, this feels great” secretly revel: “That’s why I love horror movies! Look how manly I am now! Wang Yang really didn’t introduce it wrong, but I’m feeling sick too…”

“Ah ah… ah ah!! Ah ah—” Cries of utter agony, and on the screen, those chunks of flesh, those splashes of blood, Evelyn only felt her stomach churning, her scalp seemingly rising. She didn’t feel like she was about to faint or spasm from fright like in “Paranormal Activity,” but she felt like vomiting! A young male viewer next to her accidentally noticed her discomfort and said with slight fear, “Are you okay? Don’t vomit here, please don’t!”

Has this beautiful lady never watched a horror film before? If she watched Peter Jackson’s early “Dead Alive” or the Japanese Guinea Pig series like “Mermaid in the Manhole,” wouldn’t she be vomiting to death?

While he was pondering this, Evelyn could no longer bear it and stood up, covering her mouth and quickly leaving her seat. Even closing her eyes didn’t block out the screams. She couldn’t bear to watch! Enduring the strong urge to vomit, she made her way out of the screening hall, where she finally took a breath. Knowing that she was allergic to horror films, she shouldn’t have come!

“This is really good, James, wow! This shot is shocking.”

The Snowland Theater was hosting the premiere of “Saw,” with the audience seats as fully occupied as ever. Wang Yang frowned slightly, praising James Wan beside him, who was also dressed in formal attire. This was the first time he saw the new version of “Saw,” since he didn’t like horror films and he was confident that “Saw” didn’t need to worry. Compared to the original, the new version handled details with more patience, and the props and sets were more “luxurious” and realistic, with better performances by the actors.

For a producer and director who was equally serious, a higher production budget and ample time indeed could bring better everything, fully expressing the creative intent. Faced with a fight where it’s either your death or mine, what choices would humanity make?

Normally, a low-budget horror film that hasn’t proven itself wouldn’t spend money on a premiere, but Flame Films, having positioned it as one of the company’s top series, naturally made arrangements. Wang Yang seemed to make “frequent appearances,” continuously supporting “Saw” alongside his fiancée Jessica. Jessica didn’t mind the gruesome amputations and screams; she would only occasionally frown and say, “That’s really scary.”

Compared to bloody and gory slasher films, she was more afraid of and interested in psychological horror, always believing she was suited to act in it.

“Oh my grandma, maybe I shouldn’t have come, I can’t stand it…” Although Wang Yang had tried psychological horror and gory thrillers, if he didn’t enter that dedicated and frenzied production state, he really feared watching both. He even doubted if he was hemophobic, of course in reality he wasn’t, having been in situations where he made quite a few people bleed from a beating. He took Jessica’s hand to steady his nerves and chatted with James Wan beside him, “James, Flame is planning to turn ‘Saw’ into a series of at least 10 films.”

“10 movies?” James Wan was quite surprised; he knew Flame wanted to turn “Saw” into a series, but hadn’t expected Wang Yang to propose ten installments right off the bat. Leigh Whannell, seated beside him, was also somewhat taken aback and let out an “Ohh”: “10 movies? That sounds a bit scary.” Wang Yang simply smiled and nodded with a “Of course”: “Yes! One every year, all released on Halloween.”

“Saw” operated like this under its original company, Lionsgate, and had a large global following of die-hard fans. It was unclear whether it was Jon Feltheimer’s idea or Wan and Whannell were reluctant, but the director’s role for “Saw II, III, and IV” was handed over to Darren Lynn Bousman, while Wan and Whannell served only as producers and screenwriters (Wan did not take part in writing II and IV; Whannell did not take part in writing IV).

The fifth, sixth, and seventh movies had different directors; Whannell completely left the writing team, while Wan occasionally acted as a co-producer. Of course, a director and producer would not willingly be tied to a franchise forever; no matter how passionate they are, ten movies are too many, and it would be difficult to break their own mold, which is why it’s often a trilogy.

“James, are you going to continue directing? And Leigh, will you keep on writing and producing? Let’s start with a complete trilogy,” Wang Yang asked earnestly, looking at them. Wan and Whannell exchanged excited glances, and Wang Yang smiled, “This is just an idea for now, just fishing for your thoughts. You can’t discuss specifics in a movie theater, right? So, how about it?”

“Why not?” Wan responded with a laugh, and Whannell echoed with a grin: “Why not?” At that moment, the sound of pig-like screams reverberated through the hall again, causing the audience to let out a collective buzz of astonishment. Surprising! However, a large portion of the critics frowned, looking quite displeased. Meanwhile, Wan continued, “I want to try making a psychological horror film, but ‘Saw’ is also great. I can make a few more of these games of murder.”

“OK!” Wang Yang burst into laughter, excited at the prospect of different “Saw II” and “Saw III” movies. He nudged James Wan’s arm with his elbow, chuckling, “Let’s have some fun and scare these people to death!” Jessica, who had been paying attention to him all this time, shrugged slightly, thinking he might just scare himself first.

“Congratulations, you’re still alive. Most people don’t appreciate living, but you won’t be like them, not anymore.” “Yes, I am sick, sickness is consuming my body, but it has made my mind clearer. I know what I’m doing! I despise those who don’t cherish their own lives, those who disdain the suffering of others. I despise all of this!”…

Amid the audience’s gasps and praise, the big screen started to roll the credits, and then a thunderous round of applause erupted. The appearance of “Saw” on this Halloween Eve undoubtedly brought a huge surprise to horror movie fans. Wang Yang was right once again! It was one of the most interesting and downright shocking gory horror films in recent years! The various twisted methods of killing and the gruesome imagery exhilarated everyone.

Its weekend and opening week box office numbers were still unclear, but of course, nobody thought it would lose money. It was a familiar scene that had just happened two weeks ago: “Flame Film has made a fortune!” And it was definitely going to be a huge fortune because “Saw” opened with extremely high audience word-of-mouth ratings, scoring an impressive 8.0 on IMDb, and the audience approval on Rotten Tomatoes was as high as 90%.

“This is one of the most classic horror movies I’ve ever seen, the plot is full of incredible thrills, ups and downs, and surprises; it truly is one of the best horror settings I’ve witnessed! My hands were sweaty with nervousness, and I can honestly say I loved it.”

User Extractor, who gave it five stars, had this to say; TheDudeLebowski wrote, “SAW is an amazing horror film! When I first heard about this movie, I thought it would be that dull, clichéd gory horror type, but it wasn’t. SAW breathes new life into the exhausted horror genre. It’s a sick, twisted kind of horror, and it’s fantastic!” Another five-star reviewer, Alexander-W, said, “It gave me the feeling of watching ‘Silence of the Lambs’, it’s incredible!” TomBowler exclaimed, “WOOOO! This movie scared me like I was in hell, SAW is a psychological twist of madness.” …

Almost a swath of reviews used words like “psychological twist” and “sick”, but not many people know that the movie drew upon James Wan’s childhood experience of losing his father and Leigh Whannell being tortured by mysterious headaches. Their frustration, dissatisfaction with people who don’t cherish their bodies, and fear of “life and death being predestined” were all transformed into the character of “Jigsaw”, they are the grim reaper, loving life yet sick in their own way.

Just like ‘Step Up’, ‘SAW’ touched many regular viewers but failed to impress many critics. Its two Rotten Tomatoes critic ratings were only 55% and 40% (original at 48% and 31%), branded as rotten. This set a new record for Flame Film, having the second consecutive large scale release with “rotten” critical reception, among over 2000 screens released movies in the past four years, there were only 2 rotten works.

Therefore, many media and critics appeared very disappointed with both ‘SAW’ and Flame Films.

“SAW has a houseful of artistic ambition, but it isn’t anything, it’s just a pitiful murder movie. I despise this movie, and I despise the company that distributed it.” —— Richard Roeper, who once described ‘Ice Age’ as “capable of warming your heart” and ‘District 9’ as “putting Hollywood to shame”, from ‘Ebert & Roeper’; “It manages to make horror a bit effective, a joyfully disgusting, and … that’s it.” —— Roger Ebert, ‘Chicago Sun-Times’; “It only proves that James Wan is a sadist; Flame Films prepared such a movie for us for Halloween, it just shows how cruel the movie competition is.” —— Stephen Holden, ‘The New York Times’; “Unique but ultimately a movie riddled with pitfalls.” —— Leah McLaren, ‘The Globe and Mail’ …

Lisa Rose of ‘The Star-Ledger’, who gave ‘Step Up’ a rotten rating, this time gave ‘SAW’ a fresh one, she commented, “I saw a clever ending, and the five minutes of inspiration were strong enough to redeem an hour of mediocrity before it; it redeemed ‘SAW’.” Carla Meyer of the ‘San Francisco Chronicle’ also gave a fresh verdict: “Some moments are very horrifying, most of the time it’s chilling, it’s a clever horror movie.” …

Good or bad, rotten or fresh? The answers to these questions lie in everyone’s heart.

The mainstream critical reception wasn’t great, naturally disappointing both James Wan and Leigh Whannell. No one doesn’t wish for a booming success with praise right upon release, but the facts are irrevocable; the 90% audience approval is still comforting, isn’t it? It didn’t stop them from having a joyful Halloween nor did it affect Wang Yang and his friends from happily enjoying a Halloween party. (