Halloween Countdown ’08: I Want To Play A Game…
Over the Christmas period last year, while making some new friends in the Box 23 threads over at X-Entertainment.com (Not a porn site), I happened to mention in passing an idea I had for a childrens version of the Saw movie series. The storyline in this version featuring a young schoolchild in the role of Jigsaw putting to the test all the kids who bullied, tormented or ostricised him.
Jigsaw being a gifted child, who is adept at building with LEGO, knex and other such sets, as well as trying his hand at puppetry and ventriloquism, for which he is teased by his peers.
The juniors version of Jigsaw would continue with the modus operandi of using ironic traps that related in some way to the misdeed committed by his victim, however in a twist each of Jigsaw’s traps would also have a basis in a common, well-known game.
The first game is Hungry, Hungry Hippos for the child who was always stealing Jigsaw’s lunchbox or lunch money. Jigsaw slips something into his juice and drugs the bully. When the young man wakes up it is in total darkness and all he can detect is a feeling of movement around him. He finds a small radio on his chest which crackles and a voice plays through.
“Hello Jimmy, or as they call you on the playground Jumbo. You are currently floating in a boat in the middle of the hippopotamus enclosure at the city safari park and it’s getting near to dusk when the hippo’s will begin feeding. You’ve always said you needed the extra food for energy, well now we’ll put that energy to good use. I’d like to play a game, Jimmy. Let’s play Hungry, Hungry Hippos.”
Jimmy would then have to get out of the boat and towards shore, because hippos are reknowned as aggressive, fast (around 20mph), territorial creatures, they are known to attack humans and boats. Poor Jimmy would have to splash about in the water and much fun would happen.
Dio at the time asked about how a Fireball Island trap might play out, which, in case you didn’t know, is a game that she has a deep love for. To me the method would be simple and even who should get punished was obvious, though saying it like that might imply I was messed up as a kid or am now.
The Fireball Island trap finds a boy awaken inside a large area, surrounded by ‘jungle gym’ equipment. It soon becomes obvious that the only way out is to climb ladders, cross platforms and swing on ropes, however, should he try this several tumbleweeds drenched in gasoline are ignited and kicked down the slides intersecting his path. His message plays over a tannoy in the rafters.
“Hello Bryan, you like to scare the children away from the jungle gym at school so that you and your friends can smoke. Well, I hope you took the time on the playground to pick up a few tricks, because we’re about to have a ball.”
Of course, the floor is also covered in a puddle of gasoline, so staying still isn’t an option.
Frakkyfire then suggested Candyland for another game. On this one I was torn, because I’d already used the glutton of the class and it seemed a bit cliched to focus on force-feeding, so instead I took a different route for the test subject and a small leaf out of the Dr Who serial “Happiness Patrol” for the trap itself. For this test, Jigsaw takes one of the pretty, popular girls (think Ashleys from Recess) who always turned her nose up at him, and places her in a cuboid tube with her hands restrained behind her. At face level there is a niche in the tube that holds a small red button a few inches back. The opening to the niche has a waterfall of boiling, unsweetened lemonade constantly cycling. After the message plays, icing made from sugar, pink food dye and water will begin to pour in from the roof. The message plays from a small radio on the floor.
“Hello Claire. Sugar and spice and all things nice are what little girls are made of, except for you. You seem to enjoy being sour to those you consider under you. We’re going to play a game now, high above you is a container of frosting that will slowly fill the tube and match you facade of sweetness, all you have to do to stop from drowning is come face-to-face with your bitterness.”
Another obvious choice for games comes in the form of Snakes and Ladders, for the two-faced person in the class who pretended to befriend a young Jigsaw and then helped the other bullies to perform a nasty trick on him, all the while laughing in Jigsaw’s face. The boy wakes up dangling by one arm, his hand in a noose connected to a fraying rope, beneath him lies a vat with a few stolen, poisonous snakes inside. All around the side of the vat are hanging rope ladders, all of which have several missing rungs or are fraying in places. The only way out is to traverse horizontally as well as vertically.
“Hello Jake. You are the type of person who takes enjoyment in lifting people up and then thrusting them down to new depths, you poison their spirit and you constrict their hopes. You speak with a forked tongue, but you should hope you move like a sidewinder.”
You can’t really leave out Operation either, which I think would be the most gruesome of all the games. Tethered to an operating bed by a leash around the neck and to a belt at the waist, the child wakes to find he has several stitched up scars on his body, each scar has a metal ring around it on top of the skin. A small, metal crochet hook is in his hand. Both the hook and the hoops have wires trailing from them, the hoop wires leading to the negative side of a transformer, the hook to the positive side. Upon touching hook and hoop, the circuit becomes complete. Under one scar is the key to the leash, under another the key to the belt. The gender, I’m not actually decided on, but for irony the ‘crime’ is in regards to playing ‘Doctor’.
Mousetrap, featuring a room with lots of tables with an array of mouse, bear and other animal razor-sharp traps. There is one door out, but it is locked and every trap has a key or set of keys on it, should the child get caught though, the traps are sharp enough to slice through fingers and crush bone. Oh, and the floor is covered in rats. This punishment is obviously for a class thief.
The final game, which actually would be played out throughout, would be Guess Who? and is intended for the teacher, headmaster or appropriate adult. They awaken in a copy of the classroom Jigsaw was bullied in, all of the class with the exception of the victims of the games are sat at desks in front of the adult. A small television plays footage of the tests as they roll out. The adult and the class are all say in electric chairs. Laid out before the adult is a board similar to Guess Who? featuring the flip down cards bearing the faces of each student and the front card is their own. The adult has a small stylus pen on the desk. The introduction to the adult comes as the television switches on.
“Before you sits both a question and an answer, if you know how to find it. The question is simple, who is ultimately responsible for this suffering? When you know, mark their card and dismiss them from class.”
Of course, the board is rigged and pressing the stylus against a card sets off their chair. Additionally, the adult can use the board to stop an escape from a game and seal fate. On a death, the persons card flips closed by some internal mechanism. Ultimately, they are left with the answer that they are to blame, having ignored the problem or even contributing to it.
Oh, and I found this on DeviantArt and it’s far too fitting not to include:
Little Jigsaw’s sAw world 
by ~CutieHorrorGirlie666 on deviantART
(PS. As you can probably tell, family friendly theme has started to run its course, so starting tomorrow I think I’ll focus on…I dunno, zombies maybe?)
This is so incredibly twisted but would fit into the series so well!! Great post my friend!!