By Steve Newton As most in-the-know horror-movie freaks are no doubt aware, the latest entry in the Saw franchise, Spiral: From the Book of Saw, opens this Friday (May 14). As the designated horror reviewer for Vancouver weekly the Georgia Straight since the early '80s, it was my journalistic duty to cover all the Saw … Continue reading “Saw Six is the sixth Saw I’ve seen”: my original reviews of every Saw movie, 2004-2010 & 2017
Tag: torture porn
The Saw franchise celebrates 10 years of blood ‘n’ guts and money
Ten years ago today the first Saw movie was released, marking Hollywood's entry into the so-called "torture porn" sweepstakes. And what a windfall it's been! The original Saw of 2004 has so far grossed (good word) over $100 million on its $1.2 million-dollar budget. Its success led Saw's makers to release one sequel every year until 2010, when Saw 3D added a couple … Continue reading The Saw franchise celebrates 10 years of blood ‘n’ guts and money
Horror review: Die
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, NOV. 2, 2011 By Steve Newton Name a horror film with three letters in its title that’s about a group of strangers who are kidnapped, held prisoner, and forced by a calmly voiced psychopath to play twisted games that decide whether their fellow captives live or die a slow, torturous death. … Continue reading Horror review: Die
Horror review: The Collector
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, OCT. 28, 2009 Now here’s a twisted little gem just in time for Halloween nightmare-making. The Collector—no relation to the same-named ’60s thriller in which weirdo Terence Stamp kidnaped hottie Samantha Eggar—should make the backers of the Saw and Hostel franchises think twice, because it takes the rotting corpse of torture-porn out of the abandoned warehouse … Continue reading Horror review: The Collector
Horror review: Saw VI
Saw VI is the sixth Saw I’ve seen, and maybe the sickest. In the opening scene, a man and a woman are held captive with devices strapped to their heads that can screw bolts into their skulls. They’re told that only one of them will live, the survivor being the person who dumps the most … Continue reading Horror review: Saw VI
Horror review: Untraceable
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, JAN. 30, 2008 It was only a matter of time before the lamentable movie subgenre known as torture-porn stopped being the sole property of the horror scene and grew into a marketable angle for the mainstream thriller. Untraceable boasts a respected director (Gregory Hoblit of Fracture and Primal Fear), and a … Continue reading Horror review: Untraceable
Horror review: Hostel
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, JAN. 5, 2006 By Steve Newton The horror scene seems to be in the grip of a hardcore revolution these days. It's as if a cabal of serious fright-film fanatics got together and organized a bitter backlash against hokey Hollywood body-count flicks with cookie-cutter plots and predictable outcomes. In the last … Continue reading Horror review: Hostel