Woodchippper Pants and Other Shameless Self-Promotion

The four-part study, published in the Journal of Consumer Research, also concludes that the most terrifying scenes in scary movies are the ones that rouse the most pleasure among horror enthusiasts. This mixed experience of fear and happiness counters the notion that negative and positive emotions can’t be triggered simultaneously, with much of the existing research suggesting horror fans simply endure discomfort to enjoy the flood of relief that follows.

In fact, it was only among the horror-averse that significant levels of happiness registered at the end of a chilling scene.

According to study co-author Eduardo Andrade, a marketing professor at the University of California-Berkeley, the capacity to simultaneously experience fear and pleasure is directly linked with having a “protective frame.” That is, knowledge that no real-life danger exists in a given on-screen situation.

Horror fans are more likely to have these dual feelings because they maintain a certain level of detachment that allows them to absorb fear while still enjoying themselves.

Those people who typically avoid scary movies, however, don’t approach nail-biting scenes with a like sense of safety and thus experience the same level of fear as horror fans but “virtually zero” enjoyment.

“They just hope it’s going to be over soon,” says Andrade.

He suggests the horror-averse could gain a protective frame through movie trailers that depict the making of a scary scene - clearly indicating no harm is being done to the actors. But Andrade cautions that trailers mustn’t reveal too much, or they risk putting off the “core” horror viewer who has no need for such coddling.

Dave Alexander, managing editor of Toronto-based horror magazine Rue Morgue, recognizes these protective frames or shells serve their purpose, saying he has “yet to fire a spear-gun at the TV while watching Jaws.” But his preferred poison is a storyline that hits closer to reality.

“A classic marketing ploy is to play up the ‘based on a true story’ angle in order to remove a layer of distance,” says Alexander. “I thought Open Water was particularly scary because of the way it was shot like a documentary, making it easier to feel like you were in that water, surrounded by real sharks.”

Open Water tells the tale of a young couple on a scuba diving vacation who are accidentally left behind in the ocean. It’s not long before the sharks start to swarm.

Alexander also observes that the very films that terrify can also reassure.

“Zombie movies, an insanely popular subgenre right now, are punk rock, but at the same time - probably on a subconscious level - reaffirm our need for polite society and make us feel safe,” he says.

Brock University Prof. Barry Keith Grant, author of two academic anthologies on horror, likens watching a scary movie to boarding a rollercoaster: riders get a thrill from the potential danger but feel ultimately safe because they know the chances of anything bad happening are slim to none.

“It’s a controlled experience all the way,” says Grant.

Just as Will Smith once owned the Fourth of July with films such as Men in Black and Independence Day, the Saw franchise has a stranglehold on the most frightening weekend of the year.

This Friday, for the fourth October in a row, another grungy plunge into gore-splattered torture games will open in time for trick or treat. Or as the trailer for Saw IV boldly states, “If it’s Halloween, it must be Saw.”

Back in 2004, when the original Saw was born, a major debate ensued over the wisdom of opening a horror film on that date. “There was a question of whether its target audience would rather be out partying,” recalls Tom Ortenberg, president of Lionsgate Films, where the franchise’s movies all rank among the company’s top-five grossers.

Now, he says, “Halloween and Saw are synonymous.”

How scary is that?

The date will be booked for a while. After Saw III grossed $34 million during its first weekend, more than tripling its cost and achieving a rare instance of a sequel topping its predecessors, the film’s makers began thinking of a No. 4.

Now, a fifth already is in the works even before the new film has reached theaters, and a sixth is in the air. “As long as we can come up with good screenplays, we won’t miss a Halloween,” vows producer Mark Burg.

But just how long will the box-office money continue to flow like Saw’s rivers of blood?

“I don’t think there is any question that several more Saws are in the offing,” Ortenberg says. “It hasn’t peaked yet.”

Burg and producing partner Oren Koules took a chance on the first Saw after they spied an element that had been missing in the then-waning horror genre in a sample clip provided by Australian director James Wan and his co-writer, actor Leigh Whannell.

“It struck fear in your heart with what could be a real-life situation,” Koules says. “Not just someone chopping off limbs or zombies attacking. The premise creates a situation where you think, ‘What if that were me?’ ”

Still, to some critics, it felt a little too real. The series, along with other graphic ratings-busters like Hostel (also released by Lionsgate), has been vilified by some for glorifying sadistic violence as a form of entertainment. Hostel: Part II’s shrunken grosses ($17.5 million) reveal that the public also might be tiring of so-called torture porn.

Yet Saw keeps buzzing right along. “The Saw films have built up enough of a following that they’ll always be profitable as long as the budget remains modest,” says Dave Alexander, managing editor of horror magazine Rue Morgue.

Still, he notes, the creators may soon find it increasingly difficult to invent new cruel and unusual contraptions to mangle and deface human bodies. No. 4 resorts to a scalping machine, which hardly tops No. 3’s attempted drowning in a vat of putrefied pig flesh.

As Alexander puts it, “Seriously, what’s next? Woodchipper pants?”

Still, Burg vows the final 20 minutes or so of Saw IV “is as shocking of a twist as the ending was in the first Saw.”

Another dilemma to be solved: How many logical ways can Saw star Tobin Bell and his now-deceased villain, Jigsaw, find to justify being part of future films?

“If there were one thing we would do over again, we would not have created a lead character who was dying of terminal cancer,” Burg says. “You get to the point when you have to decide whether to kill him or not. If we didn’t kill him, how long would we keep him on his death bed? If he had gone into remission, it would have felt like a cheat.”

Ortenberg will say only that “Tobin will always be an important asset.”

But it might not be the death of the series if Jigsaw retires. “The franchise would suffer without Bell’s reptilian performance,” Alexander says. “But it’s not like the studio would stop making the Saw films if he refuses to appear in them. The real draw are the traps, with Jigsaw as the ringmaster. And if the show must go on, another demented sadist could surely be found to break some bones.”

The actor, meanwhile, is not resting on his Saw laurels. Bell has been executive-producing and starring as the Devil in Highway 61, about a struggling rock band that makes a deal with Satan. He also is developing several TV properties with Lionsgate. One contender, ShockTreatment, would feature Bell as a doctor in a boarded-up mental asylum whose memories of past patients come dramatically to life.

As Bell says, “You try to get things going for yourself. And not wait for other people to have good ideas.”

The creepily calm villain from “Saw”, one of the most successful horror franchises ever, is back Oct. 26 for a fourth installment, despite his lack of a pulse.

Neither terminal brain cancer nor a circular saw to the throat could keep the moralizing maniac with a fondness for torture traps from delivering such Dr. Phil-isms as “Cherish your life.”

The fiend, again played by Tobin Bell, is very much alive, thanks to flashbacks that parallel the fresh hell in the rest of the film. Fans will learn more about why mechanical engineer John Kramer, the man behind the killer, is driven to chastise those who take life for granted.

Bell, 65, was an unsung character actor in films (”The Firm”) and on TV (”24″) before he started being compared to Freddy Krueger and Hannibal Lecter. And he isn’t ready for the jig to be up for Jigsaw.

“I feel very blessed to continue to be able to develop this character,” the Los Angeles-based actor says while doing press in the nation’s capital. “It’s not like I’m not aware what we are making. It’s not going to become “War and Peace”. But I do what I can to fight for some degree of humanity, delicacy and intelligence.”

It wasn’t until the first weekend’s box-office receipts were counted for last year’s “Saw III” (the $10 million sequel took in $34 million) that Bell was certain he would return. As he points out, many more pieces are needed before the puzzle of Jigsaw’s past is complete: “Saw” doesn’t play out in a linear way. Just because you know how I died doesn’t mean you know the rest of my story.”

Some “Saw” fans go for the sick kicks, but it does matter who is doing the dirty deeds. “The smartest thing the “Saw” franchise did was to develop Jigsaw into a character, so there is someone to follow throughout the series,” says Dave Alexander of “Rue Morgue” magazine. “He may be a bad guy, but like many great, very vulnerable villains, he is sympathetic.”

The accidental fright icon (Bell spent much of the first “Saw” silently lying in a pool of blood) has a Method to his madness, based on his time at the Actors Studio with teachers Lee Strasberg and Ellen Burstyn. He has developed a whole back story for Kramer, from losing his parents at age 6 to being left at an orphanage by an alcoholic uncle.

None of this is found in any script, but the actor insists, “The camera sees everything, and, even if you don’t know it, it’s there in a little corner of my eye.”

Bell’s own life with Elizabeth, his wife of 15 years, and their 12-year-old son is fairly normal. He coaches Little League baseball and flag football. But now and then, Jigsaw creeps into his daily routine.

“My son’s sixth- and seventh-grade friends on the flag team have been saying to me lately, “Do the “Saw “voice, will ya?’ I say, “No, no. Let’s run this play. Let’s go.’ Eventually, I get them in a huddle and say (in a hoarse whisper), “Suffering? You haven’t seen anything yet.’ ”

Do they quake in fear?