Lionsgate just dropped a bunch of new character posters for Jigsaw, and fortunately, it’s just as cryptic as any other conventional Saw marketing. As I’ve noted in the past, Lionsgate essentially went on a cone of silence in terms of pre-release marketing for the Saw sequels, starting with Saw III. Since many of these films didn’t screen for press, it was frighteningly easy to walk into an opening night/opening day showing and not know a damn thing about what was going to transpire.
I always appreciated the bare-bones marketing in the later installments, as by that point if you weren’t excited about the prospect of a Saw sequel you weren’t going to be convinced spoiler-y plot points or footage. These posters are allegedly of folks that Jigsaw “saved,” although I won’t pretend to recognize the actors at this early juncture.
The actors are made up to look like the Jigsaw puppet, but yeah they do kinda look like clowns, which may remind folks of The Dark Knight or It, however unintentional it may be. Trust me, these campaigns are planned in advance and the movies themselves are written well before they can cash in on super recent trends.
It’s no different than The Mummy Returns opening six months after Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Sure, both movies had centerpiece action sequences of women fighting each other via hand-to-hand and weapon-to-weapon combat, but the first Mummy Returns teaser dropped in November of 2000, well before the Ang Lee film become a mainstream phenomenon.
Besides, I’d argue that the last thing Lionsgate would want to do is remind folks of another horror movie in the marketplace since the whole point of the ad campaign is that the franchise is attempting to reassert its dominance over the Halloween season. And on that note, I’m intrigued that Lionsgate will be playing Jigsaw in IMAX theaters for its first week (before Thor: Ragnarok takes all of those screens).
Assuming the movie is any good and/or makes a lot of money (assuring a packed audience), I might consider taking in a second IMAX-enhanced screening on Halloween night just for kicks. So, fellow studios, please let me see Bad Moms Christmas (which just moved two days early to Nov. 1) and Thor: Ragnarok before Tuesday the 31st, thanks!
We can debate the extent to which a film playing in IMAX still constitutes said film being a big deal (I won’t hold Inhumans against them), but it still signifies that at least the picture will have strong production values. To be fair, Paranormal Activity 2 (essentially a found footage chiller) played in IMAX back in 2010, but that was more of an “it’s a big deal” thing as opposed to an “It’ll look dazzling in IMAX” booking.
But the big questions are A) will Jigsaw make the franchise relevant again in the era of Blumhouse and Creepy Puppet dominance and B) can the movie make enough to push the franchise over the $1 billion worldwide mark? In the meantime, I’m going to try to watch the franchise’s worst entries (Saw V and Saw VII) in the near future for proper perspective. Jigsaw opens Oct. 27, 2017, on the same day as Stranger Things. That should be interesting.
Yes, I just saw the other Halloween/horror-related news as well. But one thing at a time, folks! Oh, and all of these posters came straight from the House That Jigsaw Built!
