Playing God

Rating: 10/10 (28 October 2013)

Saw is one of the few horror series with an underlying philosophy. Victims of the main character, John Kramer (aka Jigsaw), wake up in the middle of a puzzle that needs to be solved within a given period of time. Solving the puzzle involves a lot of pain, and often requires a great deal of perseverance. Victims do not have the option to not play the game, because the consequence is death.
For example, a man wakes up by the back wall of a dark cell. He does not remember how he got there. The space between him and the open door of the cell is covered with a dense web of barbed wire. Then, he sees a voice recorder. When he presses play, a recorded voice calls him by his name and tells him that he recently committed suicide, and that now is the time to know whether he really wanted to die that day or was just trying to attract some attention. If he really wants to die, all he needs to do is to just sit there and wait. But, if he wants to live, he has to go through the web of barbed wires. Moreover, he has to do that within two hours, because the door of the dungeon is on a timer.
Putting a person to such a painful test is hard to justify. But, John relies on the assumption that "those who don't appreciate life do not deserve life" - the idea being that the gift of life is precious, and that one needs to appreciate the beauty of every moment. He thus chooses somewhat lost and unappreciative souls, and tries to make them come to the realization of that particular truth about their lives. He does this by designing a game, and putting them in it. Each game is a matter of life and death. Yet John claims that he never murdered anyone, since his test subjects always had the chance to survive.
In a way, John plays God - that is, his tests involve pain, suffering, and death. There are warnings, awards and punishments. And, not playing the game is not an option.
Serdar Kaya