Saw Year: 2004 Director: James Wan Written by: Leigh Whannell Threat: Psychopath Weapon of Choice: Booby Traps Based upon: none IMDb page:

Other movies in this series:
Saw II
Saw III

Rish's Reviews
A few months ago, a buddy of mine became obsessed with the movie Saw. He had downloaded the trailer, watched it a bunch of times, and would call me at odd hours to announce, "We're going to play a little game." He described the film to me, getting me quite excited about it as well (he had done the same thing a couple of years back with Jeepers Creepers).
Unfortunately, when I ended up seeing the film, he was not with me. I'm sure it would have been a different experience had we seen it together.
The premise ain't simple: a young man (Leigh Whannell, who also wrote the script) awakens in a filthy bathroom, chained to a pipe with another man (Cary Elwes) in the same predicament. They are potential murder victims of the Jigsaw Killer, a crazy who puts his prey in horrible moral quandries where they often end up killing themselves.
The neat things about these kind of movies (I guess you could call these Gimmick Serial Killer flicks) is putting yourself in the unimaginable situation, and asking what you would do. Would you kill someone to save yourself? Would you put yourself through excruciating pain for the CHANCE of survival? Which do you choose: the hard or soft option?
Shot with a super low budget in a foreign land, the film nevertheless had an impressive cast. Danny Glover played the world-weary, obsessed cop we've seen him do at least five times before (the Lethal Weapons and Predator 2 instantly come to mind), though this guy is a little more unbalanced than the others had been. The acting seems to fall apart toward the end, with a hysterical Elwes shrieking, twitching and coughing out his lines in a manner almost impossible not to laugh at. That being said, I think Whannell did a bang-up job, with his funny and believable performance (and unlike poor Elwes, he carried out a wholly realistic American accent).
Though the name of the city is never mentioned, the film seems to take place in the same city as Seven, which is, basically, the sleaziest, dirtiest, most sickening place to live imaginable.
It is one of those flicks where you're supposed to try and guess who is behind it all. Unfortunately, all films post Sixth Sense have to have a twist ending (or a twist after the twist that followed the twist). The script's logic doesn't really work, when you think about it. Even so, it was an entertaining film with a clever enough premise that I don't regret going.
Sadly, the movie isn't nearly as scary as the trailer was, or indeed, as the premise was. There were a couple of jumps, but not anything truly frightening. Also, all the fascinating/twisted scenarios don't really pay off the way they might have. I did have fun, though, so I'm not sure why I'm complaining.
I'd Recommend It To: If you're a fan of this kind of thing, you ought to enjoy yourself.
Posted: December 6, 2004

The tyranist's thoughts
Every October a new Saw movie comes out, and every October, I stay home. I'm coming to this franchise much later than I should have. I'd offer up a defence, but there really isn't one. Lazy, I guess.
So I rented this one and Saw II and watched them back to back. I even made Rish sit through the first one again, just because I could. And now that I've done it, I find myself really wishing Saw III were either still in theatres or out on DVD already.
There's probably nothing exceptional about the acting, the execution or the script here. The premise is where this one really sets itself apart. We've had our share of gimmicky serial killers, but for once this one has a really interesting purpose and motivation. The gimmicks are a bit excessive at times, but the morality of the premise is undeniable. It's a traditional horror convention to have most of the protagonists turn out to be not completely nice people, just because that makes it easier for the audience to see them die. Here, though, the killer clearly has the moral high ground and in quite a few ways is our protagonist. And I'm not talking about the sick, twisted kind of thing that happened with the Nightmare, Halloween, and Friday the 13th movies.
As I write this, I realise that I've blended the two films a bit and while the morality of Jigsaw was there to find in the first one, it really only became completely apparent in the second movie. If you look, however, you will find it here.
I agree with Rish, that Cary Elwes performance was problematic, but for the most part I enjoyed this one and was very impressed with what they could do on what was obviously a really low budget. The premise is brilliant and while they didn't fully execute on it in this one, this is really a must see before proceeding on to the next one where the series becomes fully realised.
Now I just have to be patient for the third entry to hit DVD and the fourth to hit theatres, next October.
Posted: December 28, 2006

Total Skulls: 17

Sequel
Sequel setup
Rips off earlier film
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie
Future celebrity appears
Former celebrity appears
Bad title
Bad premise
Bad acting
Bad dialogue
Bad execution
MTV Editing
OTS
Girl unnecessarily gets naked
Wanton sex
Death associated with sex
Unfulfilled promise of nudity
Characters forget about threat
Secluded location
Power is cut
Phone lines are cut
Someone investigates a strange noise
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door
Camera is the killer
Victims cower in front of a window/door
Victim locks self in with killer
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls
Toilet stall scene
Shower/bath scene
Car stalls or won't start
Cat jumps out
Fake scare
Laughable scare
Stupid discovery of corpse
Dream sequence
Hallucination/Vision
No one believes only witness
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth
Warning goes unheeded
Music detracts from scene
Death in first five minutes
x years before/later
Flashback sequence
Dark and stormy night
Killer doesn't stay dead
Killer wears a mask
Killer is in closet
Killer is in car with victim
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unscary villain/monster
Beheading
Blood fountain
Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc.
Poor death effect
Excessive gore
No one dies at all
Virgin survives
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Unresolved subplots
"It was all a dream" ending
Unbelievably happy ending
Unbelievably crappy ending
What the hell?