Editorial By: Giaco Furino
When Saw first hit theaters a decade ago it sent a shockwave through horror culture. Mainstream moviegoers got a grisly dose of blood while hardcore horror fans relished the thoughtful plotting. And it changed the style of horror for the next decade. But it was definitely against the popular trend leading up to it’s release. After the release of movies like Scream the safe bet in horror, as a writer or director, was to wink at yourself while the blood flowed.
So how, in the first half of the aughts, did a brutal and clever movie spring from the candy-sweet horror of the nineties? How did Saw come to be after a decade of Leprechaun and Puppetmaster sequels pouring onto the shelves of video rental stores? It didn’t come out of nowhere, so we’re going to take a look at some films from the nineties and early aughts that paved the way for Saw.
Early Precursors
We’re focusing this list on movies from the nineties because it was a time when good, gritty horror just didn’t come easy. But We’d be amiss if we didn’t mention the long legacy of gory, grisly horror from the seventies and eighties that, of course, paved the way for Saw. Check out classics like The Last House on the Left, Zombi 2, and (duh) Texas Chainsaw Massacre. With that bit of lip service done to our elders, let’s jump into the era of Tongue-in-cheek horror and Tamagotchis to see what really led the way to Saw.
Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Thirteen years before Jigsaw set devious traps for his captives, Hannibal Lector became a household name as the world got to know their first truly lovable serial killer. The movie won five academy awards, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Picture. But awards aside, Silence of the Lambs set the groundwork for the race-against-the-clock serial killer movies we know and love today. Looking at the horror movies that followed Silence, it’s baffling. It’s as if no one was paying any attention.
Candyman (1992)
Say his name five times. Go on, do it! If you won’t, it’s because you’ve seen this 1992 shocker and it got under your skin. Adapted from a Clive Barker short story, this movie took pleasure in the slow building dread of modern horror. It’s killer is an impressive force, it’s scares are legitimate, not just jump scares, and Candyman questioned everything from adultery to class warfare. Candyman was a lighthouse in the fog of watered down sequels in the nineties. As Roger Ebert wrote in his review of the film, “What I liked was a horror movie that was scaring me with ideas and gore, instead of simply with gore.”
Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994)
Did we just take a jab at sequels? In the case of New Nightmare we take it back! As the seventh movie in the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, Craven set out to bring the nightmare back into Nightmare. As the slasher pics got more and more ridiculous in the late eighties and nineties, Wes Craven had the sense to try and darken the tone again. It’s benchmarks like these that kept the horror genre from swinging too far into the ludicrous, even if New Nightmare only barely doubled it’s budget in gross returns.
Seven (1995)
This is an easy one. In fact, when Saw first came out many accused them of copying from Seven. The story of a psychopathic serial killer who teaches his victims a lesson or two before dispatching them had some calling Saw a rip-off. But I don’t think that’s fair. As Saw scribe Leigh Whannell explained in an interview from 2004, “What we always liked about SAW […] was the fact that the story is told from the point of view of two of the psychopaths victims, instead of the police chasing after him, as you so often see.” Still it’s safe to say that without Seven, I don’t think we would have ever had a Saw. What’s in the box? Inspiration!
Event Horizon (1997)
Hold. Your. Horses. Don’t shoot! This sci-fi flop from 1997 may have been panned by critics and canned by audiences, but there’s a lot of good work done in this film. The visuals are astounding, the hell scenes are terrifying, and the gore is wonderful. Even though the pacing is way off in this movie, it’s mix of Hellraiser and Alien left an aesthetic vastly different from the horror around it. We know this movie isn’t the best… but we don’t care! Sometimes something as small as people getting their skin ripped off in space is enough to turn a tide.
Strangeland (1998)
When I think good nineties horror, for some reason Strangeland also comes to mind first. This is a movie that scares in movements. There’s the “chase the killer” section of the film, and the “reformation” section, and then a crazed final act. The torture scenes are right up there on par with Saw. The psychological profiling and characterization going on feel honest and real. And the acting by Twisted Sister’s own Dee Snider and Robert Englund (among others) is pretty well grounded for such a fantastical plot. The technology, like all tech in the 90’s, looks corny by today’s standards, but this 1998 shocker was a brutal as any entry in the Saw series.
Cabin Fever (2002)
Eli Roth, so instrumental in the formation of horror in the aughts, burst onto the scene with this sticky flick. Cabin Fever ruminated on body horror in a way that must have made David Cronenberg proud. The movie was full of gore and guts, with a virus literally tearing a small group of twenty somethings apart. This heavy gore was like a glass of cold water thrown at the sleepy horror genre. It screamed: The aughts are here, let’s get bloody.
Were there other movies in the 1990’s that stood out? Of course! But these seven entries kept the genre grounded while silly sequels, tongue-in-cheek horror for teens, and straight to video messes ruled the decade. By the time we got to Saw we, as fans of the genre, had been prepped for the decadent gore that was about to be unleashed. Watch some of these “classics” before you pop in Saw for it’s tenth anniversary… we bet you’ll see the connections.
