If we take a look at the news murderers that have been born in the big screen during the
last years, without a doubt, the most fascinating one among people is John Kramer, also known
as Jigsaw, the protagonist of the horror saga Saw.
Today, we’ll continue with our special terror program.
Let’s get to know a bit more about his macabre story.
Watch out for spoilers!
His strength comes not only from the number of victims who had fallen in his traps, more
than 50, but more likely from the wit and sadism present in his murders.
Jigsaw is not a regular killer with a bladed weapon or a gun.
He is an engineer of crime.
And this is, precisely, the profession John Kramer had before turning into a maniac killer.
His past is told mainly through the second and fourth installments of the saga, tho,
unfortunately, we dont know anything about his childhood or teenage years.
John was a civil engineer, with a successful career in the restoration of old buildings.
He was happily married to Jill Tuck, a psychologist, younger than him, whom he helped in the private
desintoxication clinic she ran and that she herself had founded.
With their patients, they used a self-help therapy transmitted through the slogan of
the company: Cherish your life.
This quote will be of a great importance in Jigsaw’s genesis as a killer.
John Kramer’s life seemed perfect, until suddenly, everything was turned upside down
and he suffered several blows that sank him forever.
The first one was losing the kid they were expecting, who they were gonna call Gideon
(Guídeon).
Jill was pregnant when, one night, while she was locking the clinic, she was deceived by
one of her pacients, Cecil Adams, so she could go in and steal drugs.
While escaping, Cecil hit Jill with the door, causing an internal bleeding and the loss
of the baby.
Not long after, in a routine check-up, John was diagnosed with colon cancer, which comes
from a tumor in the frontal lobe of his brain.
The tumor is inoperable, and condemns him to die soon.
However, he hangs onto his last hope, and tries to sign up for a new experimental treatment
that could save his life.
The final blow came when his insurance company refused to pay for the treatment, and John
was left without any hope.
Depressed, he decided to put an end to his life, and he jumps off a cliff with his car.
Surprisingly, he survives, but severely injured, with a metal bar through his abdomen.
In that moment, John, has a revelation and finds out how much he “cherishes his life”.
He gathers the courage to to get the bar out of his body and recover to perform his work.
He dedicates the time he has to test human nature and its survival instinct.
Jigsaw doesn’t consider himself a killer.
He doesnt kill directly - he puts his victims in a limit situation where they have to choose
between giving up pr fighting to survive.
At a high cost, of course, including extreme torture, from self harm to ending with others’
lives.
But it’s always them making the choice.
Jigsaw doesn’t enjoy his victims’ suffering.
He makes them go through it so they can change the course of their crooked life.
The chosen ones are usually people who are not happy, or waste their existence and that
of others.
Kigsaw comes to remind them they have to be grateful for the gift of being alive.
And if they dont make it through the test, it means they didnt deserve that gift.
Jigsaw traps are mechanic gadgets or physical puzzles that seem to be inspired by sadistic
instruments of torture from the past.
In order to build them, he uses second hand or rotting materials, specially rusty metal
pieces, and sometimes he adds countdown mechanisms.
However, they are always a symbolic representation of the defects or sins of the victim.
Jigsaw explains the rules of the game to his victims and how they can escape through video
or audio recordings.
But he doesnt show his face directly - instead, he usually hides behind two well known symbols
for those who follow the saga.
One is Billy, a puppet John built back in the day for his future son, Gideon.
After his death, Jigsaw decided to give it a more macabre appearance and use it in his
games to communicate with his victims.
It has appeared through video recordings, and also physically, riding his own little
tricycle.
The other one is the pig mask Jigsaw and his disciples use to hide their faces when kidnapping
their victims.
It’s a rubber mask covered with a wig and represents a realistic image of the head of
the animal.symbology comes from the pig in the chinese calendar, the year when his son
John was supposed to be born, and the year his crimes started to take place.
As it was expected, Jigsaw ends up dying in the third part of the safa, tho not because
of his terminal illness, but murdered by one of his victims.
However, as usual, his wit is ahead of the unexpected events, and he manages to have
his legacy ot tests continue through several disciples, during the 8 movies the saga has
had up to now.
Recently, we have enjoyed the come back of the saga to the big screen, after seven years
with no new sequels.
It seems like Jigsaw’s legacy is going a long way, surprising us with new and twisted
mortal games.