For the last three nights Jayne and I have been working our way through the three Saw films. The trilogy starts quite nastily and gets progressively more nasty as it goes on, with the third film being literally unwatchable in parts.

I loved it. It was like being a kid again, hiding behind the sofa when the Daleks come on Dr Who.

The real effort was trying to not think about how a weak and frail terminally ill cancer victim could find the time and energy, not to mention the funds, to find multiple properties to stage his atrocities in, design and build the gruesome torture devices, select victims and then stalk them long enough to discover all their little secrets, get his hands on fatal nerve gases and slow-acting poisons (and their antidotes) and learn all about dosages, set up CCTV systems and video relays, etc.

The films are a sure sign of changing standards and tastes, or the decline in morals depending on your point of view. The things you see in the new wave of gory horror/suspense films like Saw, Hostel, Severance, Cabin Fever and the rest are surely worse than anything that was in the 80’s ‘video nasties’ which were banned, and yet they are available in every shop which sells DVDs

I like them though. They put life into perspective as you can watch them and think that no matter what problems you might have, at least you are not faced with having to saw your own foot off or pluck your own eyeball out just to avoid something even worse. Mind you, the way things are going the ‘games’ in the three Saw films will be adapted for The Crystal Maze or I’m A Celebrity before long.

I am glad that we decided against trying to watch all three in a row in one sitting, there is only so much of it you can take, and I am thinking of digging out Belleville Rendezvous or Robots tomorrow night to clear my mind a bit.