WΔZ

A pregnant woman is found dead in a seedy part of the city. The woman died as a result of a strong electric shock that carbonized her extremities, and the letters WAZ were carved into her abdomen. Detectives Eddie Argo and Helen Westcott initially think that the culprit is her boyfriend, a notorious local criminal, but when the man's body is also found in an apartment, murdered and with the fingers of his right hand burned, the police begin to follow the trail of a score-settling. But other small criminals start dying in similar ways, always in pairs with their loved ones, so Argo directs the investigations towards an old acquaintance who might have had a reason to seek revenge. The good old American-made police thriller has changed; the elegant and serious setting that became popular in the '90s thanks to successful films like "The Silence of the Lambs" and "Seven" has given way to a type of film more geared towards visceral entertainment, filled with violence (even extreme), convoluted plots, and torture on display. "Saw - The Enigmista" has spawned a progeny of films that attempt to mimic its schemes and reproduce its ingredients in the hope of replicating its success. Now comes "WAZ," to be read as double v-vee-delta-zeta, as specified by the Italian subtitle, which in a curious but functional way attempts to merge the modern trend of torture porn with the more classic police thriller à la David Fincher. Produced in 2007 but released in Italy only at the end of 2012, "WAZ" features a classic but gripping structure centered on the police investigations, derived from a series of good insights that set it apart from the crowd. Initially, "WAZ" seems to follow the mechanism of "Seven" with a macabre ritualistic murder and the discovery of the killer that occurs before the midpoint of the film. To get to this point, there is an original trail that the detectives follow, a scientific trail that connects to the theory of the "gene of selfishness" postulated by Richard Dawkins. According to the English biologist, it is sometimes the individual's genes that influence their behavior and determine the survival of the species. If indeed an individual sacrifices their own life to save that of a relative or vice versa, it is because the genes prevail and act to the advantage of the conservation of the species. On this fascinating theory, much of the theoretical content of "WAZ" is based, which from a certain point onwards turns into a revenge movie with a structure similar to that, for example, of "The Crow." In all this, you will say, what does the highly influential "Saw" have to do with it beyond the fact that the title "WAZ" in addition to being part of a scientific formula seems to mean exactly "SAW" read in reverse? It does, it does, because the murders/tortures are precisely those typical of the saga with Jigsaw, cruel, elaborate, and visually gruesome, and especially in the final part, they reach peaks of sadism and splatter that are quite disturbing. The screenplay by Clive Bradley ("The Walking Dead") is effective in its fantastically absurd nature, but that's fine, including the predictable final twist that perfectly ties everything together. The director Tom Skankland, who the following year will direct the equally disturbing "The Children," decides that it is right to use the handheld camera mainly, with many scenes moved like "The Shield," a choice not too pertinent and mostly out of place. Excellent the ultra-dark cinematography of the Scandinavian Morten Soborg. First-rate cast featuring Stellan Skarsgard ("Thor"; "Millennium: Men Who Hate Women") and the always great Melissa George ("Amityville Horror"; "30 Days of Night") as the detectives, Selma Blair ("Hellboy"; "The Fog") in the role of the mysterious Jean Lerner, and Tom Hardy ("Inception"; "The Dark Knight Rises") in a supporting role. A good film, then, "WAZ"... absolutely nothing new but still gripping and well-structured. One of the best "stepchildren" of the success of "Saw."