What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that this movie is not for kids. It features gruesome violence, with detailed, explicit imagery of bodies penetrated by sharp implements, shot, burned up, slammed, smashed, punched, kicked, sawed, cut, and dismembered. The movie includes jump scenes and frequent arguments among victims and cops, as well as between the primary cop and the killer, who holds the cop's son hostage. The father and son argue at the beginning of the film, setting the stage for the father's remorse and anger. Characters bleed (lots), vomit, and cough blood. Characters smoke and curse relentlessly; in flashback, one character injects drugs, to demonstrate her addiction. The film also features "extreme" editing, very rough and jaggedy, which in itself may be disturbing for some viewers.
- Families can talk about the movie's rudimentary efforts to set up the killer's "moralistic" framework. How does Jigsaw judge his victims in order to rationalize his cruelty? How might the father and son have worked out their conflict in a less sensational way? What does the son want from his father? And where is the mother in all this?