"Twisted Pictures: Morality, Nihilism and Symbolic Suicide in the Saw Series"

Although numerous critics have complained that Saw is ethically confused, little attention has actually been paid to how morality manifests in the series’ rolling narrative. Rather than seeking to understand the films by exploring them in detail, critics have accused Saw of being potentially corrupting, making a leap in logic between the overt preaching of Jigsaw – Saw’s lead protagonist-cum-killer – and the films’, filmmakers’ or audience’s moral intentions. This chapter seeks to redress that imbalance by examining Jigsaw’s moral agenda in depth. To get to grips with Saw’s morality, I employ a theoretical model that has resurged in recent philosophy: Nietzschean nihilism (see Diken, 2009; Taskale, 2010; Pauley, 2011, for instance). This chapter is shaped by three interlinked nihilist paradigms, two found within Nietzsche’s “European Nihilism” (The Will to Power (1967: 3 and 11)), and a third related form coined by Hans Enzensberger (2005). I will apply each to the Saw series, testing whether Jigsaw is a Nietzschean passive nihilist, a Nietzschean radical nihilist, or an Enzensbergerian radical loser. My aim is not to categorise Jigsaw, but to better comprehend his moral mission. This is vital if we are to understand Saw, since Jigsaw’s morality drives the series.