'The Jigsaw' Short Film Review

Following the tone setting title card, the audience is brought to a busy market street, accompanying an elderly gentleman as he makes his way down to an unknown (to the audience at least) destination. The heckling salesmen make for quite the tumultuous shopping experience, and the gentleman seems to be somewhat bewildered by the uproar. The man himself seems rather well kept, and seems rather out of place amidst the seedy salesmen, who seem to have came straight from the set of Diagon alley. Though the scene does leave the audience wondering why a simple market is so absurdly hostile, it does a good job to give the audience an insight into the protagonist, as even though he startles at some of the more overzealous salesmen, it is clear that he is pushing forth through the market square with some predetermined goal in mind as a destination. By having him continue onward through the hostile environment, despite occasional frights, and making it clear that the protagonist is heading to somewhere in particular, it has the audience engaging with the narrative right from the get go. It could have been previously assumed that the man were to have taken a wrong turn somewhere, and this line of thought would have been given some merit, as he is quite clearly outside of his comfort zone. Something which I do feel further adds to the audience's intrigue with the narrative, the quality of the narrative and the mise en scene of the first few scenes do start out rather strong. Though as the man makes his way to the edge of the market, judging by his rather determined look as he approaches, what can only be presumed to be his favourite jigsaw shop, any thought that he were lost is quickly dismissed. So far the film has set itself comfortably in the horror genre, it has succeeded in doing so by following the codes and conventions set in place by other horror media, the stormy night, the villain lurking outside the glass door, house inexplicably far away from the rest of civilization, forewarning about a curse from a deranged lunatic and a genuine axe wielding maniac. Each of these cements Jigsaw within the horror genre, it would be impossible to mistake this for anything other than a genuine attempt at the horror genre. The tension can be felt building as the man makes his way towards the unknown, backed by shouts and yells of the sinfully greedy. The next features a shot of a man who is surely gearing himself up for a back breakingly strenuous journey... into a jigsaw shop. Much to my surprise, he manages to make it across the accursed street without being ravaged by a rogue tribe of cannibals, and he seems reasonably calm to be inside. It is at this point that the whole film begins to go down hill, the scene inside the bookshop is so full of clichés  and poor dialogue as to be bordering on parody. The shots thus far have managed to draw the attention to the pertinent areas, allowing the audience to stay aware of what is happening, and keeping certain pieces hidden for the sake of suspense. However, during the awkward jigsaw store scene, there is a large amount of emphasis placed on a book the owner is reading through, it did initially leave me wondering what it would amount to, but turns out to be nothing more than either a red herring, which on repeat viewings did nothing other than distract and irritate, or a pointless shot. Despite the poor dialogue of the scene, the camera work's use of narrow shots and high angles from the point of view of the enigmatic salesman clearly illustrates the dynamic of the pair, the salesman has something amiss about him, so the camera work manages to work pretty well here. The camera work on the old man's journey home makes it apparent that he clearly lives hundreds of miles away from civilisation, adding to the drama of the film as it is apparent that the nearest place for help is a few weeks travel away. Despite the flaws the film has shown over the last few scenes, the cuts intermittently strewn amongst the jigsaw's assembly work well to create an eerie atmosphere, it does add a certain sense of dread, and the song playing in the background works well to emphasise the eventual reclamation of the accursed jigsaw, and the draw it has back to the store. The film then ends with the old man, for reasons unbeknownst to me, finishing the jigsaw and getting axe murdered.

Stepping aside from the flaws, the film clearly sits comfortably in the horror genre, and the end sequence's shots I did genuinely enjoy and they did manage to portray an encroaching sense of dread. The film followed a linear narrative, which did reach a natural conclusion given the hints the audience was given throughout the film. The scenes were set up nicely and featured entirely diegetic sound design, even the music in the last scene is shown to be coming from the old man's record speaker. The diegetic sound design added to the audience's engagement with the film as it is another level to the film's ambient design, another way of delving deeper into the world of the film and getting involved further with the narrative. The décor made the town seem hostile, the jigsaw shop reservedly evil and the house perfectly isolated, which remains that the only real issues were the two major characters; the protagonist and antagonist, which being that they are the primary roles, it does have a negative effect. The old man seemed continuously jumpy, even before meeting the malign figure, posing as a salesman, and the salesman himself acted like a Scooby doo villain. Overall, the only real feeling I was left with was the understanding that I shouldn't trifle with cursed board games and that just because something is award winning, it doesn't mean it will be for everyone.