introduction.

Horror films are a lot like roller coasters. They both bring our spirits to an ascent of adrenaline, fear, and anxiety. Yet both has an alternative modes of transportation. Roller coasters use carts to drag us up to the top of this free fall drop with hinges and gears. Meanwhile, scary movies mentally manipulate our minds with make-believe moments of mayhem. A great example of this mind ride is Saw II (2005) directed by Darren Lynn Bousman. Where character, Michael, is pinned to the wall in a life or death situation. In Saw II setting, conflict, and mutilation to engulfs the audiences' perception into a reality of fear.

The setting of Saw II feelings of solitude and helplessness is transitioned from character to audience. A cold shiver runs down the back, as the hanging light bulb slowly flickers on, in the center of the plagued interrogation room. Darkness over shadows all within these four walls, causing the corners of the room to be nonexistent, further amplifying the feeling of being all alone. The cold, cracked, concert floor is stained with traces of dried blood, urine and feces. With air is cold enough to see your own breath with each exhale and smell in the air was filled with the intoxication scent of death....Lynn Bousman uses this solitude setting as an ascent of the fearful mind ride.

The conflict of Saw II is grimly unique in a way that strikes fear into the viewers.
In the center, underneath the light bulb sits a unconscious man named Michael. Suddenly, Michael wakes up. Only to find himself sitting in pool of cold sweat, on a old, worn and battered dentist chair, stripped down to nothing except for his blue poke-a-dot boxers and a unusual contraption locked to the core of his body. This machinery was made for only one purpose, to crush and chew the skull of it's prey with rusty iron teeth, a lined in the interior of it's jaws. Frantically looking around the room for any clues to help locate where he is, Michael sees a mirror held perfectly in place for him to view his face. Dark black blood reflected back, as a fresh stream of red velvet steadily drips downward onto his right lap, descending from Michael's desolated right eye. Held down by excruciating pain and swelling the right eye remained shut off from sight. To the left of the mirror sits an operation tray on wheels. In the tray were only two items, a scalpel and a X-ray result of a skull, in the right eye socket a key was shown. And the only way to reach the key was through sweat blood and tears. Conflict is the critical peak as we take our plunge down into the fall of fear.


The idea of mutilation expands terror to the audience because of the life and death situation that Michael was challenged with in Saw II. To survive this sick and twisted game, Michael must forcefully gouge out his eye to retrieve the key of survival. To do this, one must take incredible will power and pain tolerance to self-inflict this laceration. Not only will one have to slice open a hole wide enough to jam in their index finger into the pupil of their own eye, they must then generate enough pulling force to release the eyeball from it's socket. Step two is where some might give up all hope. The veins and muscle sensory tissue attaching the eye must be severed off so that the key can be uncovered. The last task of madness is the most excruciating, frustrating and crucial. Within the decapitated right eye socket, one must dig, past all the blood, tissue and tears, (o yes, you will cry) to locate the little key, and remove it from the confinement of the skull. Even past all this, finding the keyhole must be challenging with only one eye. Mutilation embeds fear in the audience because no one ever wants to get hurt.