My Review of Saw (2004)

 

Written by Leigh Whannell 

Directed by James Wan

John (to Adam): "Most people are so ungrateful to be alive, but not you, not anymore. GAME OVER!"

I've been iffy about this franchise. I don't hate it but it's definitely a franchise that wants to have it's cake and eat it. You've got a horror antagonist that seemed delight in abducting people and putting them through psychological warfare and have then killed in often sadistic ways.

However this first movie was more lower scale. Two men are trapped in a grotty room together with a dead body. The first man -  Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Lewes) was an inattentive husband and father to Alison (Monica Potter) and Diana (Makenzie Vega). This would come back to haunt him.

The second man named Adam (Leigh Whannell) seemed to be a mostly innocent guy but it turned out that he was spying on Lawrence's extracurricular activities. That put both men at odds and their mystery kidnapper Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) seemed to revel in testing their resolves while delving into their flaws.

For Lawrence there was the added dilemma of having both Alison and Diana being terrorised by Zep Hindle (Michael Emerson). It turned out the latter was being blackmailed by Jigsaw but fortunately Alison was able to save herself and Diana. If it were up to Lawrence, they wouldn't have made it out of the movie alive.

There's a lot of parts in this movie. You've got both Adam and Lawrence fighting for survival, Zep being as much as a victim as they are and the reveal of John Kramer as the real Jigsaw. I'll admit that was the best part of the movie along with hints of Kramer's backstory.

Another aspect of this movie involved detective duo David Tapp (Danny Glover) and Steven Sing (Ken Leung). Both men tried desperately to catch Jigsaw and save other victims. They didn't exactly succeed in either aspect and Sing himself ended up being another casualty. 

- This movie introduced us to Amanda (Shawnee Smith), a survivor of one of Jigsaw's previous games. Billy the Puppet appeared very briefly.

- This originally started life as a short movie and was even meant to film in Australia before budget reasons changed it to Los Angeles.

- Standout music: Pitbull Daycare's You Make Me Feel So Dead.

- Chronology: Present day in Los Angeles, including flashbacks for various characters.

The first Saw movie (maybe the first three) arguably was the strongest of the bunch. Later movies will over egg everything that made this ons work but for now, the psychological games and Jigsaw all worked pretty well. A strong debut.

Rating: 7 out of 10