I respect your view, nekromantik, but nevertheless I have to keep disagreeing with you.
In the end, regardless of "Saw" starting out like a "Se7en"-esque thriller, what we have here is another HORROR-franchise- and compared to the regular contradicting plot-chaos, loss of continuity and sudden lapses in quality in the long-running-likes of the "Friday, the 13th"-, "Halloween", and "Elm Street" series, the "Saw" movies have kept their storyline actually going till the (supposed) end, with each entry keeping up (to a more or lesser degree) the same level of quality production-, direction- and performancewise (antother thing NOT to be taken for granted with horror franchises
).
I find "Saw" to be closest to the "Elm Street" movies in the sense that the series has/had a studio behind it that actually cared (and grew based on the success of the series
).
Unlike "Friday" or "Halloween", the "Elm Street" flicks actually reflected on the era they were made in. The same goes- from my pov- for the "Saw" outings, which are/were basically the only current running genre franchise which bothered to comment on the present age we're living in.
