Sawbones Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

Sawbones Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf July 27, 2023

If 1992’s “Dr. Giggles” wasn’t enough of a shocking viewing experience, die-hard horror fans are offered a slightly similar endeavor in 1995’s “Sawbones,” a Roger Corman production that originally aired on Showtime. Once again, there’s a madman with daddy issues targeting special victims used for surgical purposes, with the creep indulging an interest in body horror to scratch a highly specific itch of human suffering. The pictures aren’t identical, but they share the same idea, with “Sawbones” trying to be more of a detective story, setting up a young office clerk with instincts for investigation and the fatigued cop who’s one step behind the carnage. The screenplay by Sam Montgomery (“U-571,” “Breakdown”) makes some effort to be a twisty, tortured chiller highlighting frustrated characters dealing with their issues in all the wrong ways, but director Catherine Cyran (“The Prince & Me II: Royal Wedding,” “The Prince & Me 3: A Royal Honeymoon,” and “The Prince & Me: The Elephant Adventure”) goes the B-movie route with the film. The helmer keeps the feature crude and deflated when it comes to suspense, and she’s also struggling to fill the run time, padding the event with lengthy surgical nightmare sequences that always bring the tale to a full stop.

Jenny (Nina Siemaszko) is stuck in her own life, dealing with a job she hates as a clerk for a medical school admissions office. She’s also engaged to Brad (Nicholas Sadler), a young doctor who doesn’t have the time or interest to deal with his partner, focused solely on his own needs. One afternoon, Jenny, following the cries of a stray kitten, comes across a dumpster with a dead body in it. This corpse carries evidence of surgical torture, with Detective Miller (Adam Baldwin) on the case, learning that the victim was operated on without anesthesia, missing sections of her anatomy. Across town, Willy (Don Harvey) is a madman trying to block out a past of parental abuse, with his father pushing his son to be a top medical mind. Repeated attempts to enter med school have been rejected, sending Willy into insanity, using his free time to live the doctor life in his own demented mind, collecting victims from the community. Jenny begins to sense something isn’t right about the situation, learning more about possible connections to her own school, secretly helping Detective Miller while angering her boss, Rita (Barbara Carrera), and finding no help from Brad.

Jenny isn’t a particularly well-written character, but there’s something interesting about her place in “Sawbones.” She’s being prepped for a future of nothingness, tasked with being a wife to Brad, with his medical career presented to her as the sweet life, requiring no work as her husband takes care of the bills. However, she wants something more, and she’s not getting it at the admissions office, where she deals with the dismissive ways of Rita. Everyone gets their shot in with Jenny, and there’s a movie to be made about this journey, watching how the young women figures out her own existence once she realizes there’s nothing for her if she lives to serve others. Of course, “Sawbones” isn’t going to pursue that, quickly moving over to the ways of Willy, a villain who’s lost touch with reality a long time ago, filling his days with meals of SpaghettiOs and the torture of innocents, delighting in the chance to slice open victims who are incapacitated, but can feel all the pain. He’s created his own doctor fantasyland in a basement setting, working with imaginary nurses and, later in the film, enjoying a backyard golf outing with imaginary colleagues.

On the case is Detective Miller, who’s introduced as a complete creep, forced to apologize to a young woman when he uses the pursuit of a suspect through an apartment building to peep on a tenant in the shower. Our hero, ladies and gentlemen. “Sawbones” presents Miller as a hardened man of law enforcement, dealing with jokesters in the office and vanity issues, and he’s struggling to understand Willy’s motivation. Bodies are discovered, and Miller makes a connection to Jenny, who’s energized by the case, eventually electing to go detective with her access to admission files, gradually understanding what the killer is up to. “Sawbones” doesn’t hide this motivation, offering flashbacks to Willy’s terrible childhood throughout the movie, watching as the boy is psychologically tormented by his father, who quizzes him on the human anatomy, always disappointed with the outcome.

Instead of pumping up sleuthing, “Sawbones” goes graphic, with Cyran staging multiple surgical sequences with Willy, who’s happy to tear into victims, including rude people he encounters, and a pregnant woman with pronounced nudity (this is a Corman production for pay cable after all), adding unnecessary cruelty to something that’s fairly dumb to begin with. “Sawbones” lingers on gore, watching Willy fondle juicy organs and spread blood all over himself (he’s terrible at shaving too). It’s meant to give gorehounds some bang for their buck, but trips to Willy’s nightmare realm are way too long, preventing the feature from building any sort of suspense as it lingers on ugliness, going past making a graphic point about the killer’s diseased mental state.

Sawbones Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The AVC encoded image (1.85:1 aspect ratio) presentation is listed on the press release as a "New 2K restoration from the original camera negative." The viewing experience is nicely detailed, with facial surfaces textured and gore zone visits goopy. Costuming is fibrous, dealing with medical outfits and business attire. Interiors deliver a look at decorative additions, exploring surgical rooms and office spaces (you can see one computer set-up has information taped on the screen). Exterior activity is dimensional. Colors are alert, with deep red for blood as innards are sorted by the madman. Period clothing brings out sharp primaries. Greenery is distinct. Delineation is satisfactory, preserving shadowy encounters. Grain is decently resolved. Source is in good condition.

Sawbones Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 2.0 DTS-HD MA offers a satisfactory sense of performance, with dialogue exchanges clear and emotive. Scoring cues do hit a few pockets of damage, but general synth support is appreciable. Sound effects are acceptable, with slippery body parts and other horrors, and atmospherics explore echoed environments and office bustle.

Sawbones Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• A Trailer (1:29, SD) is included.

Sawbones Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Action is limited in "Sawbones," which mostly sticks with the ways of investigation, watching Jenny become empowered by her detective skills, while Miller starts to add some flirtations to their secret partnership, which doesn't help to build appeal when it comes to this character (Baldwin's disinterested performance doesn't help the cause). Matters become more active in the climax, with Jenny taking justice into her own hands (the cops are amusingly depicted as a lazy bunch, whining about research), and Montgomery tries to add some wrinkles to the case to make things more urgent. Cyran doesn't take the hint, keeping the endeavor leisurely paced and clumsy when it comes to the staging of shock value. It's hard to get involved with the feature, which makes poor creative choices, doing surprisingly little with its strange battle of depressed office assistant vs. medical school ghoul.