First Post Ever!

So this blog is for my class "Press in America."  I'm supposed to write about my interactions with the media, and more specifically, I'm supposed to question why these interactions occur, what they mean, etc.

So here it goes, bear with me.

The first thing ever that I'd like to touch upon are the "Saw" movies.  We talked about this in class for maybe two seconds today, but I had some thoughts that I wanted to share. 

These movies are grotesque, full of mutilation and are just plain obscene.  There are seven movies (the most recent of which is in 3D! Which I'll probably write about at a later date. But anyway...) full of regular people in tortuous situations.  I think that the "Saw" movies say a lot more about our media culture than you might think.

The "Saw" movies are really the "Saw" franchise.  The first movie made a lot of money because of word of mouth advertising.  I personally know that I went into the moving knowing NOTHING about it, because a friend told me I had to go, he had seen it.  I was blown away.  Without spoiling for those of you who haven't seen it (either go see it or admit you never will), the ending was phenomenal, and left me absolutely astounded.  In my opinion, the first movie was extremely well-written, well-executed, and well, good.

A year later, my television started popping up previews for "Saw II."  I remember thinking to myself, "there's no way they can top the first one."  And turns out I was right.  From then on, they've been churning out saw movies each October like they are necessities for Halloween to continue being awesome.

My point here is that a fantastic movie became a franchise, and the life was sucked out of it.  I haven't watched "Saw" in years because I just don't care about Saw anymore.  Some producers or whatever realized they could make millions off a "Saw" franchise and they are still trying to suck more life out of something that has clearly been dead and rotting for ages.

Imagine if the studio behind "Shawshank Redemption" decided that a whole slew of breaking away from prison movies could be a big cash cow.  The original would still be great, but it would be cheapened.  Sometimes movies should stand on their own.  "Saw" did that.  It was a dark but clever story.  But in this day and age no one can settle for greatness because they want that sweet money.