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“He doesn't want us to saw through our chains. He wants us to saw through our feet.”

2004 R / Suspense Horror Directed by: James Wan Starring: Leigh Whannell, Cary Elwes, Danny Glover

Tagline

Every piece has a puzzle.

Summary Capsule

Two apparent strangers wake up in a grimy bathroom chained to pipes, with a dead man on the floor. Neither having attended a rave the night before, something is obviously wrong.

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Check out the soundtrack CD

Kyle's Rating: Even better than the real thing
Kyle's Review: I don’t pay much attention to stuff like Marilyn Manson music videos, Rob Zombies videos, blah blah blah. I’ll go as far as Tim Burton’s twistedness extends; beyond that I’m interested in the dark places, but I don’t have the time or patience to explore. But lots of people do, and they’re influenced by it. They watch hardcore movies, ranging from the hokey Faces of Death films to stuff like Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer and Strangeland (though I have watched about a minute’s worth of Strangeland *inside joke related to Linda Cardellini*). They’re changed by it, almost certainly (it’s pretty icky, after all). But I think more importantly they get their own ideas about how they’d improve what they’ve seen and make their own superior works, and among friends they argue and contemplate and imagine and sometimes, oh, sometimes... they get their chance to create.

"If nothing else, the poster with Shawnee Smith in dental gear from hell is one of the most memorable ads I’ve seen in a long time!"

Saw is one such creation. I don’t even have to do research to find out that the creators are into the sorts of things I’ve mentioned: Saw wears its influences on its sleeve and is ultimately too smart and too admirably intricate to be the work of fakers or the usual screenplay hacks.

Two men wake up to find they’re chained to pipes in a grimy old bathroom where a dead man lies on the floor, clutching a handgun and a tape player. Each of the men has a tape with a personalized message, both of the men are more connected than at least one of them might think. They have a matter of hours to “win” a game before one man’s wife and daughter are killed and the two of them presumably as well. All of this transpires because people don’t seem to appreciate what they have and enjoy life, so the so-called Jigsaw killer takes elaborate pains to teach his “victims” to find their wills to live. I guarantee that whatever assumptions you’ve made about the plot and who’s to blame, 9 out of 10 of you will be wrong, and even the 10th person will only have lucked upon part of the solution. Encyclopedia Brown couldn’t crack all of this one!

I saw an exclusive look at Saw on IFC where the director guy explained that he and the writer wanted to take the serial killer genre and twist it, do something different with it. They certainly succeeded with the “different” aspect. And the “serial killer” part as well: a character in the film mentions that it’s technically difficult to classify the Jigsaw killer as a murderer, since he doesn’t kill anyone: he finds ways for people to kill themselves. The film is a cool achievement, one worthy of all the hype and attention it’s received. Good work! If nothing else, the poster with Shawnee Smith in dental gear from hell is one of the most memorable ads I’ve seen in a long time!

Saw is ultimately sort of a mixed bag. I think it’s a great theater-going experience, especially if you don’t know the surprises and plot twists to come and it’s one big rush of “where the heck is this going” your first time around. I went opening day after mostly avoiding any spoilers for months in advance, and I was mostly blown away. Some parts I felt neutral apart, other parts had me deep in thought trying to put everything together. Overall, though, Saw was a lot of fun. But now that I know the secrets and outcome, I’m in no hurry to see it again.

The great movies make me want to hide in the theater bathroom and stay for a second showing. Good movies, like Saw, just offer a great one-time experience and maybe the promise of a fulfilling rental. But that’s just me. Perhaps you’ll go nuts and want to watch it over and over to fully understand what it’s saying and trying to squish together into a motion picture. Good luck with that.

In the end, Saw may be a slight disappointment. Only because internet buzz, that sweet promotional image, and my own ideas about what was to come built Saw into the third or fourth coming of horror, and on top of that I was anticipating the experience of watching Saw to send me into therapy or even an asylum. Sure, why not? But Saw hides most of the gore (wisely or unwisely; it’s up to you) in the spirit of Halloween, and prefers to wow you elaborate plans and devices, confuse you with red herrings and hints of mystery, and invoke epileptic shocks with occasional scenes of flashes and fast motion circular views of the action (usually a victim in agony). It was cool to watch, and in a way it’s a mainstream gateway film into the more macabre and pulsatingly loud, hard and dark music realms (so if you’ve always thought you might like the Manson/ Rob Zombie stuff but weren’t sure, this might allow you to decide). I’d ultimately rank it below Seven for disturbing qualities and nightmare potential, so don’t be too afraid to give it a try. You just might be dressing in all black studded metal things and eyeliner in no time!

Justin's Rating: You'd like an arm and a leg? As you wish.
Justin's Review: At the root of Saw is something that I think everyone shares: the masochistic tendency to daydream up terrible and downright impossible scenarios for yourself, a kind of What would I do if... mental exercise.  What would you do if you were presented with the choice of having to watch Batman and Robin five times in a row or shave your head and paint it pink?  What would you do if you had to pick between your best friend's life and having to use rough, one-ply toilet paper for the rest of your life?  What would you do if you could have fifteen minutes of incredible fame and brilliance but die in ten years, or a life of mediocre accomplishments that would go on for another fifty?

"Saw: good, disposable horror, and important safety tips regarding hardware tools."

Making a character in a movie choose between two equally repugnant choices is squirm-inducing for the audience (and not just because of the termite infestation), because we can't help but to put ourselves in their place.  When you match this with a horror setting, you've struck genre gold: immersing your audience and making them care what the heck happens to these people on the funny flat screen.

Saw is a grungy, nasty flick that grudgingly admits to more than base stock in cheap horror scares and gore.  Yes, it has those things, and isn't shamed in plagiarizing tactics from horror movies throughout time — the fake scare, the real "jump out and grab the guy" fright, the long scenes full of people wandering places so slowly to not only build up tension in the audience but also send them into an unrecoverable coma — but when it's peeled away from the been-there, done-that of its trappings, this movie boasts more smart horror than a bulk of the cheesy teen scare flicks that flood theaters yearly.

The core situation in Saw is that of a What will you do... for many of its characters.  The evil Jigsaw, a serial killer with far, far too much time on his hands, revels in putting people into complicated and deadly situations for little or no reason.  The movie might've explained why Jiggie picked each of his victims, but it didn't do it clearly enough for me to make sense of it all — so we're left with a bunch of people who wake up, find themselves in a horrifying situation, with a gruesome choice to make.  Supposedly, this is supposed to weed out the "I wanna live at all cost" yokels from the "Eh... now's as good of a time as any to kick the bucket" dudes.

There's a naked guy trapped in a dark maze of razor wire, tasked with getting to the exit before a door closes on him forever.  A girl comes to and discovers that unless she performs a bit of unnecessary surgery on a still-living yet paralyzed guy, her head will be blown apart.  And two men, somehow linked together, awake in a bathroom, chained to pipes, and issued hacksaws that can cut through flesh but not metal.  What would you do?

Saw both succeeds and fails, but goes for the gusto with a shoestring budget and plenty of enthusiasm for putting its characters through hell and then a deeper hell.  It fails with some weak acting (Carey Ewles toward the end is just... not quite right for the part), plot holes a-plenty (again, WHY are these people picked to be victims of elaborate torture set-ups?), and a villain who's motivations are unclear but still drives him to spend about four months per each scenario to cover every possible angle.  Personally, I would have no idea where to get the deserted warehouse space or the death implements necessary for these schemes, but that's probably why I'm not in a cookoo house somewhere talking to imaginary mothers.

How it succeeds is the imagination and verve of its storytelling, and the variety of suspense, horror and thriller that that movie travels through.  Apart from the victims and their setups (only the bathroom story gets told at any great length), the surrounding story of the characters dives into nail-biting stalking of the victims by Jigsaw before their abductions, the detectives trying to track the killer down, and the dubious motivations and false clues of each of the people as their lives somehow interconnect.  And also don't.  As I said, not very clear why everyone was involved.

I think it shows wonderful insight into true horror on behalf of the directors that they didn't feel it necessary to show every last bloody thing; many of the deaths and tortures are sped-up, shown through quick cuts, or the camera pulls away from the happening.  This, of course, prompts your brain to fill in the missing picture almost immediately, and that's something you'll be thanking your brain for as you toss and turn that night without sleep.

Saw: good, disposable horror, and important safety tips regarding hardware tools.

"If you'd like to make a call, please hang up and cry again." Well. Ain't this a peach. You thought YOUR braces were bad!

Didja Notice? [some sources: IMDb]

• That is one dirty bathroom. What is that powdery stuff that they’re standing/sitting in? Yikes!
• Either they went method acting on this one, or the stuff they used to fake the contents of the toilet is really innovative!
• The mystery really does stay convoluted and confusing through the use of flashbacks and other assorted film tricks. Others have remarked they figured everything out within the first 30 minutes; hey, good for you! For me (and maybe you), there is enough entertaining trickery and red herrings to at least carry you through a proper viewing experience, so if you manage to figure it all out congrats!

Is It Worth Staying Through End Credits?

No, I (Kyle!) stayed just in case there was a secret scene or something, but it was not to be. Just a lot of music set to boring credits, and then when everything has rolled we get that blue screen where they announce one last time what the film rating was. Like it matters at that point. “Why all the profanity, the nudity, the . . . oh, it was a NC-17! No wonder!”

Intermission! [some sources: IMDb]

Leigh Whannell not only plays Adam, he also wrote the screenplay for Saw.

Apparently Saw got cut in order to get a wide theatrical release. According to the Imdb.com, Saw was presented in its unedited NC-17 version on the German Fantasy Filfest 2004 in seven major cities. Man, I wonder what the NC-17 version has to offer? Gore, I assume! Awesome! Get me a unrated DVD release, please?

Groovy Quotes

Jigsaw: Doctor Gordon, this is your wake up call.

Dr. Lawrence Gordon: What's your name?
Adam: What's my name? Right now my name is Pretty F**king Confused! What's yours?

Dr. Lawrence Gordon: He doesn't want us to saw through our chains! He wants us to saw through our feet!

Detective David Tapp: At least we'll have the cover of darkness.
Detective Steven Sing: So will anybody else.

Soundtrack Review

It’s a big fat mix of that kind of goth-electronica-spastic-dance-hard-rock-dressed-in-black that’s somehow pleasantly loud yet eminently ignorable. Not a single lyric stuck in [Kyle’s] head as I left the theater, and during the film it provided the necessary sense of claustrophobia or escalating action or hopelessness or frantic clawing for survival or whatever. If you dig that sort of thing, hey, I’m sure the soundtrack is available somewhere near you! I guess Danny Lohner and Charlie Clouser, formerly of Nine Inch Nails, had a hand in the soundtrack, so if that gets you excited then you already know you’ll love it.

If you liked this movie, try these:

• The Game
• Se7en
• Cube