Why the Saw Movie Series Scares the Hell Out of Us

The Saw movie series has made an prevalent impact on the mind of many moviegoers ever since the first viewing at the Sundance film festival in . Some horror fans still can't escape the nightmares that they have gained since watching any of the movies in the series. Why is it that the Saw movies scare the hell out of us?

To explore why the Saw movies scare us, we have to look into the basic plot for the movies. A serial killer who is dying of cancer traps his unsuspecting victims in traps that they have to figure out to survive. This one line sets up the psychological path that will lead us to our answers.

Characters that have nothing left to lose have caused many nightmares. These characters have lost their conscience, and cannot be reasoned with at all. They set up a roadblock in the reasoning that we have grown up with that everyone can be appeased as long as we find the correct method.

In the Saw movies, Jigsaw is such a character. Is only purpose is to act as a vigilante against people that he believes are not morally concrete. He has taken it upon himself to act as the judge, jury, and executioner of the people that he decides to torment. This, essentially, sets up for another fear that many of us keep tucked away in the dark recesses of our minds.

The Saw movies have made many people realize that they are afraid of someone else making the final decision as to the length of their lives. While this might sound like a strange fear to some, it is a logical fear to most.

We know that we can die at any time. In the Saw movies, someone else decides for us. While the characters in the Saw movies can battle against death by fulfilling a certain task, they are haunted by the fact that someone else has put them into a predicament that is not easy to get out of.

All of us have a touch of anxiety when it comes to problems that cannot be easily solved. Many workers will spend their day trying to make it so that they can avoid any issue that could cause for a Catch 22 scenario. The Saw movies are based on these types of scenarios.