9 Movies That Weren't As Smart As They Pretended To Be

6. The Saw Series Thinks It's A Morality Tale

This entry was originally going to feature Tom Six's deplorable multi-body-horror The Human Centipede, but even though the film does try to evoke German war crimes in the nationalities of its villain and victims, it never aimed to go too deep, understanding its B-Movie concept. So welcome on board, Saw. While it's visual aesthetic is completely shlocky, the filmmakers (and as time went on the actors) believed they were crafting a tale of morality. Now admittedly the first film does put forward a good case for Jigsaw attempting to enlighten his victims to the beauty of life, but by the third or fourth it had become the justification for increasingly horrific moments. That's made all the worse by the chosen victims, whose crimes become as increasingly questionable in meriting such severe punishment. This'd be excusable if it wasn't just directly lifted from a film that did fully explore this concept. David Fincher's Se7en is deeply ingrained in Saw's DNA and when you put John Doe up against John Kramer it's clear which one is the smarter portrayal. Doe is deranged and proving a point that the film explores. Kramer is equally deranged, but presented almost messianic, and is proving a point the film accepts as is. Saw either thinks presenting the idea is enough, or doesn't have the !*$% to explore it. I guess that's what happens when your script is so messy the actor repeatedly rewrites it on set (you go Tobin).