Saw

When asked by someone in our 3D stereo what I plan to make with the theme Weapon, I said a chair that when sat on the user will become trapped, the response was straight away like from the film Saw?

I actually haven't seen any of the six Saw films currently released but I gather that the main plot is that a terminally ill psychopath drugs people that are in some way don't appreciate health and life in generally, usually drug addicts or are linked to him in some way. He then takes them to a secret location where he uses mind games and torture to teach them to appreciate life while they are physically able

From looking at images and reading reviews the torture devises work using a series of mechanisms to trap the victim and them force them to risk their lives to survive, they usually involve physical harm to the victim, which isn't what I want my trap to do but I am interested in the mechanisms involved

This trap is called the Knife Chair, in the film drug addict wakes up the chair with his arms bounds to the armrests and blades jutting upwards into his forearms. To release his arms he has to push a lever level with his face. However a large apparatus is added to the chair, consisting of eight blades enclosed around his head. Jigsaw (the psychopath) then instructed him in what to do, telling him that to release himself from the chair, he had to force his face through the blades to push the lever, matching his internal ugliness by scarring his face, fortunately the chair actually collapsed as he was pushing his face through, releasing him from the trap

Looking past all the torture and cutting, this is actually a good example of where a mechanism is directly linked to what someone does in a chair - be it getting trapped or a mechanism to set you free

These are two other trapping mechanisms from the films, the reverse bear trap (left) and the head trap (right). The mechanism are very similar, the reverse bear trap is helmet that is also attached in the girls mouth, the head trap is attached to a harness that is padlocked shut. They both work by the victims having a set amount to time to retrieve the key to their traps, if they take too long the mechanisms are designed to either fly open or slam shut depending on the trap, obviously resulting in the victims death

Again very disturbing but you can see links in both to much older mechanisms I have already explored, obviously a bear trap for the left trap and a Venus Flytrap for the head trap

Despite being designed to cause intense pain and often death, the mechanisms in this the films, although very extreme are clever in why the trapping mechanism is dictated by the victims actions, which is what I hope to achieve in my mechanism