The JIGSAW directed by Basil & Rashad Al-Safar - TMFF CRITIQUE REVIEW

CRITIQUE TAGLINE:
“The Jigsaw is one of those top horror short films that will simply astound with their masterful vision!”

SYNOPSIS
A man buys a jigsaw despite being warned about it by its vendor. He doesn‟t know what‟s
coming.

COMMENT ON THE IDEA

Premises
Horror films are a very special breed. While their main aim is to deliver ‘shivers’ we believe it would be wrong for them to pursue only that. Quality horror films have a tendency to fascinate the public with their mysterious side connecting them with things like spiritual themes, mystic backgrounds of specific cultures, unknown and unexplored grounds and so on. The originality of a horror film depends not only on its creator’s capacity to approach the theme from an original perspective but also on the director’s ability to treat the theme cinematically different from its precursors.

This is why nowadays it is so difficult to make a horror film and make it emerge as distinct.

Particularities
A jigsaw with "issues‟ we'd say it's a pretty interesting idea for a short horror film. It of course very much depends on the artistic approach but the bottom line is this is a good starting point for a horror.

The idea is Very Good - (very good minus).

STORY AND SCRIPT OVERVIEW

Premises
The horror script can choose two directions to be effective: follow an established recipe
(‘monster in the room’, ‘psycho’, the possessed etc. - easy to figure out what each label points to) and try to ‘refurbish’ it - which means some variables will need consistent change to generate a shift in perspective - or to try and explore new directions and bring a new cinematographic ‘language’ when pursuing those above mentioned ‘recipes’: Cloverfield, Paranormal Activity, The Wailing etc. The psychological and emotional context seems to be the driving forces with most impact on audience’s perception.

This is one of the reasons why, most of all, a horror needs to look singular among its peers. If it doesn’t, this will diminish its ability to achieve its most primal ambition: look scary.

Particularities
We've all become familiar with horror films about a haunted house, ouija boards with the power to awaken the evil, haunted attics, cursed boxes and games and even cursed furniture - we remember a film about a cursed chair; and it was a pretty cool vision by the way. Oh well, this time it‟s about a cursed jigsaw. As famous script advisor and scriptwriter Blake Snyder would often say: tell the same story only different. There we go, we‟ve got kind of the same story only different.

The Jigsaw by Basil and Rashad Al-Safar sets off by introducing the main character who is looking for something in a market. He finally spots the location that might bring him what he is looking for: a shop with old books and objects.

The suspense is triggered when the merchant tells him the jigsaw he wants is not for sale as everyone who bought it ended up bringing it back. By this time everybody knows there‟s something fishy about the puzzle and from now on everything is at stake.

The structure is masterfully built in such a way as to focus on the jigsaw and introduce the characters gradually. It is all the most fascinating as the main character and the antihero feel secondary to the puzzle - let us not forget that the film opens with a man looking for something so all curiosity and interest is driven towards this „something‟.

The events hook you from the start and never let go.

At the opposite side we have a man who seems past middle age looking for a jigsaw. Why?

We find out he had a wife - as he looks at a framed picture at home - so maybe he is just getting bored without her and chooses to do puzzles to have time pass faster. Or maybe his wife was a puzzle lover… In any way, it is not unforgivable but it is strange to see a man choosing a jigsaw.

Why a jigsaw? This is something we think could have been better established.

In regards to the originality… well there are at least a dozen films out there telling the exact same narration which very little variations because they are all screening the same anonymous horror story that used to circulate on the internet.

We can say that while the short horror of Al-Safar brothers might not be very original, it is genuine. We had a look at some of its „clones‟ and regardless of the order in which they were made this one pretty much looks like the original.

Script is Good + (loses some due to the originality issue).

ACTORS AND ACTING

Premises
Acting brings a film to life. Whether it is done through the actors’ naturalness or their
intense impersonation of the characters, acting should always remain credible and convincing and most of all should have the power to stimulate the public to interact with the story and make them empathize with its protagonists.

For the horror genre, acting should counterbalance everything else with its intensity - on
which the emotions and engagement of the public with the story very much depend on.

Particularities
Wonderfully chosen faces, the actors are quite proficient. They mix a certain amount of
naturalness with just a small drop, a tint of „expressionism‟ that give acting color and „taste‟. They transcend beautifully to impersonate their characters.

They both remain convincing and have the power to engage the public emotionally.
Acting gets a Very Good.

DIALOGUE

Premises
Dialogue should never, ever ‘be’ the film. Dialogue always comes in to ‘help’ the visual story. But in the case of scary films, before anything else, dialogue should avoid clichés. If dialogue in a horror flick is a cliché then the film will look forged and will take away much of its power to explore the theme genuinely; a clichéic dialogue in a horror film will throw all the weight of the scares on the monster and will fail to build on the fears emerging from the concept behind the story. This is why the dialogue can either support the blooming of a ‘scary’ concept that inoculates in the viewer’s mind constantly terrorising him and adding up to the thrilling ‘sudden’ apparitions or will rely only on the effect of the latter without building any solid foundation for the jitter.

The dialogue is very important as it contributes to the atmosphere, reveals psychologies and enables the mechanisms that trigger fear in the public’s hearts. And we do want that to happen with this genre.

Particularities
Dialogue is succinct and well lead to emanate mystery and launch the theme. It definitely comes to sustain the story and manages to remain suggestive explaining nothing more than it needs to.

Dialogue is Very Good.

CINEMATOGRAPHY & EDITING

Premises
Cinematography, it is easy to guess, is maybe the most important element of a finished film. It not only has the power to make a film pleasant to watch and raise its quality through its good ‘looks’ (aesthetics) but it also plays an utterly important role in establishing the mood and atmosphere of a film and sustain the harnessing of the emotion behind it. Cinematography leaves a powerful print on the ‘story telling’ of the film and that is why should never be neglected or treated with shallowness. Colours, light, framing, camera movements they are all concurring to generating emotion. For a horror the particularities of the cinematography are the clear-obscure shots and the game of lights and shadows.

Editing will give the film’s pace (which should be either dynamic or suspenseful in this case) and will guide over a correct visual grammar - of course, as long as the cinematography ‘took the time’ to respect it. It is literally a talent to cut at the right moment and the right pace (and this is beyond just cutting between matching shots).

Particularities
Cinematography does a tremendous job too. Some strange angles creating suspense (e.g. the one from above the door when the main character enters the house) bring good dynamic to the film and endow it with a cinematic grammar powerful enough to drive emotion.

Framing, lighting, camera movements and nevertheless grading are all masterfully handled, turning The Jigsaw in quite a unique cinematic horror experience.

There would be one particular shot which felt rather funny and one could sense it „to the bone‟ (we‟re trying to say it‟s really striking the viewer when it occurs): the one in which the main character takes a sip of alcohol from the glass. We kept wondering why this was so important so that it would need a detail shot of that magnitude - we can even hear the sip quite loudly. Whatever this was meant to indicate this is such a secondary detail that in our opinion it could‟ve just been contained in a wide shot and make it subtly melt in the context among other gestures.

But on the whole the fact that the story remains visual makes us big fans of the two AlSafar brothers. It‟s what film should always be: visual.

Editing gives quite an alert pace to the film helping both in keeping the story short and the viewer engaged with it. Everything links senseless and the film flows easily filmed and edited in a stimulating way.

Cinematography and Editing both get a Very Good from us.

MUSIC

Premises
Music tends to have a great impact on a film. A good horror music film has the tendency to stick in the viewer’s mind and haunt him. It also has the talent to create tension and guide the emotions towards nervousness and anxiety. But good horror music also has the talent to reflect the film’s main motif: such as suspense, mystery or gore.

Choosing music needs just as much fine tuning as anything else in the horror filmmaking
trial.

Particularities
The music choice is characteristic to the genre and especially on the film title introduction the sound effect is quite common though powerful. That was maybe something we could pick on. As the film unfolds though the music becomes very haunting and daunting and epic… and intense… We quite loved it. Puts the right „pressure‟ on the right „spot‟. Nothing else to tell.

Music is Very Good.

DIRECTOR’S VISION

Premises
The director’s vision leads everything on set and brings all the film elements together in a final result. The director’s vision reflects the dedication, the patience, the knowledge, the will, the artistic discernment and eventually - as a sum of the previous mentioned - the talent invested in the film. The director leaves their print on every aspect of the final outcome. The director’s vision is the ultimate fine tuning of the film and it is the manifesting force that makes a film great.

Particularities
The directors‟ vision is excellent. The environment is also very well handled (the storm, the lights, the fire reflection in the door window) which makes the film feel very alive. We love this kind of attention to details and we‟d just like to mention Kurosawa here, who was a master of filling the background environment with life and movement: rain, wind, snow, people dancing or moving and so on.

Well done!
Directors‟ vision is Excellent.

FILM ENDING AND ARRAY OF MEANINGS

I personally (I allow myself to get on a personal note only on this occasion), as I could not speak on behalf of my colleagues, had anticipated even from the moment of purchasing the jigsaw that it was going to work like some kind of a „mirroring‟ back of reality. Which is still a nice twist. What I didn‟t quite see coming is the detail of the merchant as the last piece of the puzzle is fit into place.

I must say this was quite a brilliant move (had not read the story so don‟t know if it contained this exact turnaround) linking the ending with the opening and giving a sense of fulfillment to the structure and the two characters by endowing their relationship with a finality; not to mention the proper weight given to the merchant which finds the good occasion to arc and establish himself as a fitly piece of the narration. It is really nice when a character which is apparently singular along the story gets fructified so well.

FINAL CONCLUSIONS

Despite the story not being that „original‟ in the auteur creation kind of way, The Jigsaw is the perfect example of the power the director‟s vision has over any script or story.

The Jigsaw is outstandingly concise, incredibly visual / special effects-wise (none used and though it is so efficient) and very suspenseful. One of the best made horror films in our festival so far.

Reviewed by Vlad Dorofte

This short horror film can be viewed at