Presentations of Crime and Punishment in the Saw Franchise

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis was to develop a deeper understanding of the Saw film franchise. While the franchise was dubbed ‘torture porn’ by David Edelstein (2006), creating a wealth of negative connotations, it has achieved the title of the world’s “most successful horror film series” (Guinness World Records, 2015) . The research was conducted from a cultural criminological perspective, placing emphasis on mass media and popular “constructions...of crime and crime control” (Ferrell, 1999, p. 395) to discover some of the key themes involved in the franchise, what these themes represent, and what they mean for society. After all, crime films act as a mirror aimed at the world, reflecting social attitudes and assumptions (Rafter, 2000, p. 21). A thematic analysis was conducted and eight significant themes were extracted: torture, trap, game, crime, survival, punishment, justice, serial killer. This thesis took a qualitative approach to obtain richer and more informative data, leading to more enhanced results that would not be so easily achieved through a quantitative study (Tewksbury, 2009). The results of the analysis revealed a hierarchy among the themes and quantitative graphs were included to complement and reinforce patterns in the findings. It was discovered that theme frequency within the films did not equate with richness of material. The discussion related the themes to broader literature, aiming to support the notion that Saw is more philosophical than it appears on the surface. Saw, through the portrayal of serial kill John Kramer, acts as a forum for discussion on attitudes towards crime and punishment, the importance of the survival instinct, playing by the rules of the ‘game’, social justice, and the purpose of torture and violence in today’s ‘wound culture’ (Seltzer, 1998). Saw operates as a coping mechanism for reflecting on and dealing with the stresses of living in a post 9/11 climate (Kattelman, 2009). Saw works as a teaching tool, method of social control, and enhancer of social solidarity by emphasising prevailing norms (Durkheim, 1958). In the end, Saw functions like a folk tale, using violence to create memorable impressions so that audiences can pass on the important messages.