Now that took me some time

It took me a lot of effort, it took me a long time to get here. But, here is a blog in CINE spheres. Before I really start with that, a small piece of history has to be told.

Since the beginning of our relationship, both my partner and I have known that neither of us are true TV viewers. So more days go by without a TV being turned on than days where we did watch TV.

No Netflix

The many stories about series on Netflix usually pass me by, simply because we have not even bothered to take out a Netflix subscription. We also don't have the Dutch channel package, because we both believe that we just don't watch enough TV to get it out again.

Why would we ...

So since we started living here in the countryside, we have decided not to pay for it anymore. Because why pay for something that you hardly use? Because it should be? Who says that ... Because everyone has it? Well, everyone should know that for themselves, we don't have it. Are we missing a lot now? Maybe so, but that depends entirely on how you are in it yourself. I feel that I miss nothing at all. I'm not a person who wants to hang in front of the TV all day, I don't feel like it at all, and I don't have time for that.

Not TV addicts

But don't you ever watch anything? Oh yes, of course we sometimes watch something on TV… we do have one. LOL. But usually we watch films, and we have a satellite that receives the free to air channels of the English TV. So for those wondering, we are not TV-less here in the house. But certainly not TV addicts.

Well then to another 'little thing' that has been going on since the beginning of our relationship. The taste of movies!

Nightmares

I have to say that I've always hated horror movies, in fact… It just gave me nightmares. I remember so well when Michael Jackson released his hit Thriller, and the video clip that came with it! I remember exactly how scary I found that clip, and I was not alone. A girlfriend of mine and I both hid behind the couch to enjoy the music. But the video clip that came with it, we didn't have to see it. And then one day we decided to literally watch that video clip ALL DAY. Every time again. At the end of the day, we were laughing in front of the TV, and we really thought we wouldn't find the clip scary from then on. We couldn't have been more wrong!

Not dare to sleep

That night when I walked from my girlfriend's house to my house, which was only 100 meters, it already went wrong. I saw strange things in every shadow and ran home. When we had to go to bed it got worse and I had terrible nightmares. I woke up screaming and did not dare to go to sleep anymore. In the end I did not dare to sleep alone for 1 week and a bed was made for me in my sister's bedroom. And unfortunately for my girlfriend, she was not doing any better. She no longer dared to sleep alone and had to sleep in her brother's room. Oh how we laughed at this, and how it reinforced my decision that “Thriller and Horror” just wasn't for me.

He loves Thriller- and Horror movies!

In the years since then I have watched all kinds of film genres. But I've always avoided Thriller and Horror. And then the moment came when I met my current partner. Not a TV viewer, just like me… but a movie lover. And you can already feel it there, especially from the “Thriller-, Horror Genre”.

No Romantic Movies

The films I had watched with great pleasure for years were not his taste at all, he is not warm to romantic lovestories, but a film like Childs Play, Carry, IT, and all the others from those genres he can easily watch repeatedly. and enjoy it too.

Horror Channel is his favorite

Now, because we have the satellite antenna, we also have access to the necessary movie channels, including Horror Channel. You get it, a channel that I prefer never to turn on, and that my partner prefers. So well, nowadays I can no longer avoid avoiding those horror films. It is not that I just watched them all, but here and there it happens that I am also watching instead of just hearing the exciting sounds. Fortunately, I don't get any more nightmares ... It's still not a favorite.

But one of the films that I have seen because of his preference for this genre of films, and that really left an impression on me is:

SAW

The first film of this series from 2004.

You really have to think!

What particularly impressed me in this film is that it is a film where you really have to think for yourself. It's a movie with an ingenious storyline, and the plot that has been written takes a different turn than you'd expect each time. You empathize with the characters that are in a shower space, not knowing how they got there ... not knowing what to expect, only to find out that they are the next victims of a serial killer, known by the name of “Jigsaw”.

They are thrown into a game of Jigsaw, and it is up to them to play the game or not. In either case, this will certainly not be painless or harmless.

I think since this is an older movie, anyone who wants to see it will have seen it. But, what's a review without a bit of the story?

Short the story

Adam Stanheight and Dr. Lawrence Gordon wake up on opposite sides of a dilapidated industrial bathroom with their feet chained to pipes. Between them is a corpse lying in a pool of blood, with a gun in one hand and a tape player in the other. Each man finds a tape in his pocket, instructing them on what to do; Lawrence must kill Adam before six o 'clock, while Adam must find a way to escape the bathroom. If they fail to complete their respective tasks then they will be left in the room to die, and Lawrence's wife, Alison, and daughter Diana will be killed.

Hacksaws

Using a clue from the tape, Adam and Lawrence find two hacksaws in the toilet. When they try to use them to cut through their chains Adam's saw breaks and Lawrence realizes that the saws are meant to be used on their feet. He tells Adam that they have been abducted by the infamous Jigsaw Killer and tells him about how he himself was once a suspect.

A known survivor

Flashbacks show detectives David Tapp, Steven Sing, and Allison Kerry, visiting the crime scenes of Paul Leahy and Mark Wilson, two of Jigsaw's earliest victims. At the location of Mark's game, Detective Kerry finds a penlight belonging to Lawrence Gordon. Tapp and Sing take him to the police station for questioning, and his alibi turns out to be true. They ask Gordon to witness the testimony of Amanda Young, a heroin addict and the only known survivor of Jigsaw's games. Lawrence is shocked to hear about her traumatic experience and even more so when she states that Jigsaw's game helped her.

two-mirror in ... the bathroom

Back in the present, Alison and Diana Gordon are being held captive in their own apartment by a man who is watching Adam and Lawrence through a surveillance camera, which is hidden behind a two-way mirror in the bathroom. At the same time, the man is being watched by Tapp, who has been discharged and rented a run-down apartment across the street from Gordon's house.

Another victim

A flashback reveals that Tapp and Sing managed to locate Jigsaw's warehouse in an abandoned mannequin factory using a videotape from Amanda's game. They raided Jigsaw's warehouse without a warrant and found another victim, Jeff Ridenhour, in a trap. They managed to apprehend Jigsaw, however, Jigsaw activates Jeff's trap and Sing rushes to save him. He then slashes Tapp's throat with a hidden blade and flees. While pursuing him, Sing is killed by a shotgun trap. Following his partner's death, Tapp became obsessed with catching Jigsaw, and still believes that Gordon is responsible.

A plan ... failed

Meanwhile, in the bathroom, Lawrence gives his wallet to Adam to show him a photo of his family and Adam finds another picture of Alison and Diana tied up. On the back, he finds a message that says: "X marks the spot. Sometimes you see things better with your eyes shut." Adam initially refuses to tell Lawrence about the photo and tells him to turn off the lights. When he does, they discover an "X" painted on the wall with fluorescent paint. When Lawrence breaks the wall, he discovers a small box containing a single bullet, two cigarettes, a one-way cell phone, and a cryptic message, which hints that the blood of the dead man in the middle of the room is poisoned and advises him to use it to kill Adam. They plan to stage Adam's death using the cigarettes, but their plan fails when Adam suddenly receives an electric shock from his shackle. Suddenly Adam remembers how he was abducted from his apartment at night by a pig-masked figure. Moments later, Alison calls Lawrence on the cell phone, while being held at gunpoint by her captor, and tells Lawrence not to trust Adam before hanging up. When Lawrence confronts Adam, Adam finally admits that he was paid to follow Lawrence and shows him several photos he took of him, which were in the toilet with the hacksaws. Some of which show him leaving hotels where he meets with his mistress Carla Song. Due to Adam's description, Lawrence is able to identify Adam's employer as Tapp.

Another call

Sometime later, Adam realizes that one of the photos wasn't taken by him, which shows the abductor of Gordon's family standing at the window of their house. Upon seeing the photo, Lawrence identifies him as Zep Hindle, an orderly from the hospital he works at. Just as he recognizes him, the clock strikes 6:00. As Gordon has failed in his task to kill Adam, Zep prepares himself to kill Allison and Diana. However, before doing so, he forces Alison to call her husband to tell him he failed. Alison uses the opportunity to attack Zep after having removed her restraints, and the two engage in a fight. Zep accidentally triggers several shots from his gun and alerts Tapp, who rushes to the apartment, allowing Alison and Diana to escape.

Cut his foot

Meanwhile, Lawrence, who is only aware of the gunshots and the screams of his family, makes a last desperate attempt to save them and uses his hacksaw to cut off his foot. Afterward, he shoots Adam with the dead man's gun and the bullet from the hidden box, seemingly killing him. At the same time, Tapp pursues Zep through an underground tunnel network. During a brief struggle, Zep kills Tapp by shooting him in his chest, and then enters the bathroom. As he prepares to shoot Lawrence, Adam, who has survived the gunshot, knocks him to the ground and beats him to the death with the toilet tank lid.

Game over

Lawrence tells Adam he must find help and crawls out of the bathroom. Afterward, Adam searches Zep's body to find a key to his shackle but finds another tape player. The tape reveals that Zep himself was merely another victim of Jigsaw's game. He was instructed to kill the Gordon family in exchange for the antidote for a slow-acting poison in his body. Just as Adam realizes this, the man in the middle of the room stands up and reveals himself to be John Kramer, the real Jigsaw Killer, and one of Lawrence's cancer patients. He tells Adam that the key to his shackle is in the bathtub. However, it was sucked down the drain when Adam first woke up. Adam attempts to shoot him using Zep's gun but is given another electric shock. John then turns off the lights and leaves the room. Just as Adam comes to, John yells "Game Over", and closes the door leaving Adam to die.

The cast for this movie was the following:

• Leigh Whannell as Adam
• Cary Elwes as Dr. Lawrence Gordon
• Danny Glover as Detective David Tapp
• Ken Leung as Detective Steven Sing
• Dina Meyer as Kerry
• Mike Butters as Paul
• Paul Gutrecht as Mark
• Michael Emerson as Zep Hindle
• Benito Martinez as Brett
• Shawnee Smith as Amanda
• Makenzie Vega as Diana Gordon
• Monica Potter as Alison Gordon
• Ned Bellamy as Jeff
• Alexandra Chun as Carla
• Avner Garbi as Father
• Tobin Bell as Jigsaw

Low budget

The budget for this film was only 1 to 1.2 million at most. And that didn't give much space, and there was little time and the film was shot in just 18 days! You can't imagine that anymore nowadays, can you?

NOT the movie I would personally LOVE

Now I am not involved at all with famous actors and actresses. Yes yes, I know… I watch too little and I am too uninterested in the Hollywood world. Maybe because it's just a real 'far from my bed' show. But I really can't tell you whether there are well-known actors or actresses, or whether these actors have other well-known works to their name. I do know that I thought it was an impressive film. But that had everything to do with how the film was built. The film is certainly not for someone with a weak stomach. And it is also advisable not to watch this movie if you don't like horror.

No nightmares this time

Which is already a thing for me, and probably the biggest reason it stuck with me for so long. Thank goodness I didn't get any nightmares after that, but I can tell you that when I went out to walk the dogs after watching this movie in the pitch dark at night, I certainly didn't feel comfortable and still was very happy that I was in the company of 4 large dogs.

It's been long since

I saw this movie… Our Lex and Rowan were both still alive. Now I am a bad film reviewer, that's for sure… although I will try to do better in my next Cine blog… but then at least I will choose a film that I LOVED to see myself. And not a horror movie that made an impression on me but that I watched more or less by 'coincidence'… because I don't want to deny my partner his pleasures either.