‘They have to help themselves’: Saw and the horrors of neo-liberalism

Abstract

Critical examinations of the Saw films have generally focused on their post-9/11 production context and the link between the War on Terror and images of spectacular violence. This article argues that Saw and its sequels can instead fruitfully be understood as products of new neo-liberal regimes of subjecthood. As neo-liberal ideology and policy push market logics further into everyday lives, new forms of immaterial labour force the worker to act both as disciplining manager and as disciplined worker. By tracing neo-liberal subjectivity’s emphasis on individualized agency and responsibility through Jigsaw’s ideology, this piece shows that Saw dramatizes the parody of freedom offered by late capitalism. Jigsaw, like neo-liberalism itself, operates through a complex assemblage of technology, ethics and guilt, which forces the neo-liberal subject to enact its own punishment. Saw’s trademark traps are explored through the series’ use of video game logic and language in order to position Jigsaw’s victims within the more subtle mechanisms of control necessitated by contemporary capitalism.