overnightoverthinking

[overnightoverthinking]

Queen never cry.

[overnightoverthinking]

Vincent try not to get scared but there's an incredibly horrendous creature next to you

[overnightoverthinking]

[overnightoverthinking]

Mary you've got the chance to do the funniest thing ever right now

[overnightoverthinking]

life update: my eyesight is getting worse

[overnightoverthinking]

She's so helpful in the remake isn't she?

[overnightoverthinking]

Rule of Rose (PlayStation 2, 2006)

[overnightoverthinking]

I’ve been genuinely thinking about doing a Candyman review ever since the sad news of Tony Todd’s passing but I both wanted to give it time and give me time to review/edit whatever I write.

[overnightoverthinking]

Late Homework (PC, 2024)

[overnightoverthinking]

‘Saw’: A Modern Film classic.

To talk about the influence that the first ‘Saw’ movie had on movies as a whole quite an undertaking. Its immediate reach is

obvious but its influence can still be felt and seen to this day.

What's the last thing you remember?

To talk about ‘Saw’ as a milestone let's first talk about what came before it. We won’t go into the entire history of Horror movies (I could, don’t tempt me) but let’s go right before Saw released.

Wes Craven’s ‘Scream’ (1996) ushered in self-aware horror. It was a movie that drew focus to horror tropes while still being an incredible slasher movie. So many movies afterwards would riff on the idea of being a “wink and a nod” to moviegoers. It’s easy to forget that the movie which pioneered this on a big scale was ‘Scream’.

‘The Blair Witch Project’, released in 1999, opened the door for movies with an incredibly low budget to not only be seen as legitimate but as major motion picture worthy.

‘The Ring’, released 2 years earlier than Saw in 2002, proved that a very effective horror movie can exist while getting a rating of PG-13. You could do more with less. Although R-rated horror were still prevalent it certainly widened the horror playing field.

I want to play a game.

Saw was released in 2004 with a budget of around 1.2 million dollars. Calculating for inflation that brings the budget to a little over 2 million dollars in current currency. Putting that into perspective the average major studio movie budget is anywhere from 65 million on a low end to 100 million and above nowadays.

Something to keep in mind about Saw is that it did not look as polished as other big budget movies. Saw looked like a grungy indie movie instead of a big budget movie which audiences were used to at the time. Another factor is that with this movie, then first time director, James Wan’s skill was apparent.

Much like with ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ (1974), we don’t directly see a lot of the gore in Saw. We see bodies, quick camera cuts, shaking, and sped up footage but a lot of the direct violence is not on screen. What is implied takes root in your mind to make your imagination do a lot more of the work than the director could.

Let the game begin.

After ‘Saw’ there were a lot more dark and gritty horror movies that flourished like ‘Hostel’ and ‘The Strangers’. ‘Saw’’s insistence on following it’s characters and learning about their stories can also be seen in high concept horror like ‘It Follows’. It launched a subgenera of movies: “torture/gore porn”. I think those movies are an interesting and important commentaries on the time the exist in but they were spurred on by the success of ‘Saw’.

Let’s now step outside of movies entirely. You know what else sparked in popularity after ‘Saw’? Escape Rooms. I love Escape Rooms. They were certainly a thing before the ‘Saw’ movies but the popularity of them has gone up after. The original ‘Saw’ basically revolves it’s main plot around the idea of an escape room after all.

Live or die, make your choice.

I am biased. I love the ‘Saw’ franchise and think the original ‘Saw’ movie should be appreciated for the long reaching impact that it has. Hopefully in reading (or skimming) this you were also able to see some of that.

Take care everyone.

[overnightoverthinking]

Wip :)

[overnightoverthinking]

silent hill. doodles #51

[overnightoverthinking]

It was a mistake to watch that tape 📼

[overnightoverthinking]

Koudelka (PlayStation, 1999)

[overnightoverthinking]

If you look really, really close, you can see there's a dead pixel in the upper right corner.

[overnightoverthinking]

Drawing James doing faces: my newest hobby

[overnightoverthinking]

my cringe thoughts won my bad--