Saw

Disclaimer:

The movie I’m reviewing this week is rated: R

Included is: harrowing torture scenes, blood, gore, swearing, and mature themes.

This review is intended for mature audiences only.

Also: SPOILERS!

One thing you definitely can’t deny about this and the last film I reviewed is how influential they were. While that certainly can’t be overstated with Saw, especially considering how this franchise has 10 films in its lineup (soon to be an 11th), I’m curious to see how the original movie holds up nowadays.

I guess that’s just my theme for this year’s Spooky Season. Or this blog in general. I guess y’all can be the judge on that. Anyway, what can be said about the original Saw? Much like The Blair Witch Project it was a low-budget hit, it popularized a subgenre of horror along with its sister film Hostel while spawning several other films like it in the process, and it’s one of the primary architects behind the “Escape Room” craze.

Looking back, there is a lot to admire about this movie that came from humble beginnings. Although, could that just be the nostalgia talking? Personally, there were plenty of things I enjoyed about the movie after watching it for the first time. From its focus on psychological horror and mystery, creative death traps, and bold experimental style I recall having a mostly positive impression after the credits rolled.

However, I also remember being a bit frustrated. I think it could’ve been more focused on the two primary characters being trapped in, what’s been lovingly named by fans, “The Shit Room.” To me it starts to get disjointed when it cuts back and forth between flashbacks and real time events happening outside of the main setting. While the editing does have a certain charm to it, it can also be just as disorienting as The Blair Witch Project. Also, I have to give some leeway considering James Wan was relatively new to directing when this came out.

What does that mean for the movie though? Is it truly a modern horror staple or did it just hit all the right notes at the right time? I think y’all know the drill by now. Let’s not waste any time solving this puzzle and get right into the original Saw.

Take out the barbed wire and I could totally see this being a XXX label.

Surprisingly the most eye-catching thing in this intro is this logo. Also yes, the filmmakers, with the help of their producers, ended up creating this company so they could get away with some of the more gruesome scenes in the film. What gruesome scenes? We’ll get to it, but for now make sure there are no 8-year-olds reading.

Yeah, the reason I put a more excessive disclaimer at the opening of this review isn’t just because this movie is insanely horrific. The other reason is because one of my high school friends told me they saw Saw when they were only 8 years old.

Are ratings just a suggestion?

Legit, this seems like it could be an intro to a Hangover sequel.
The rest of the movie is basically him figuring out how he got here, so it could work.

This is Adam Stanheight (played by one of the film’s screenwriters Leigh Whannell). Whannell is…a better writer than an actor. I know I’m not the first to say this, but Whannell comes across as overly whiny, uninterested, and unnatural in this role. To some degree I can understand it since Adam is in a life-threatening situation so he’s not acting rationally or sympathetically, but Whannell’s delivery often leads to some eyebrow-raising scenes.

*My name is “Very Fucking Confused,” what’s your name?*

*You could be the one who put me in this room!*

For the most part I can look past it, though. Sure the awkward moments are awkward, but it doesn’t make the harrowing moments any less harrowing. When it starts to get a bit goofy is when we’re introduced to Adam’s bathroom-mate, Dr. Lawrence Gordon (played by Cary Elwes).

Right from the get-go, Elwes is operating at a 60-80% American accent. It does seem like he’s trying to convey American-ness, but when he slips up it’s pretty funny. Also, sometimes it seems like he’s trying to overplay “American.”

*Bee-cause, you’d eether be in tehrible agony or you’d be dehd by nau.*
Yeah, I’m bloody ‘Murican, I am.

So those are our two main characters.

Wait a second -

they also have this corpse to keep them company.
Yippee, let the fun begin!

The “fun” in this case is piecing together ways for them to get out of their situation. Adam finds an envelope in his pocket protected in a Ziploc bag and Lawrence finds a similar one in his pocket. Both envelopes have tapes in them while Lawrence’s also has a key and a bullet.

Since Adam and Lawrence are chained to pipes on opposite ends of the room they have to throw clues to each other to figure things out. This takes up a not insignificant portion of this movie. Eventually Adam manages to grab the tape player from the dead man’s hand and play the tape he found. Thus, the world heard the Jigsaw killer’s voice for the first time.

Part of what makes this first installment so gripping is the mystery of who the Jigsaw killer is. It’s pretty well thought-out and keeps your interest from beginning to end. Also, it’s pretty cool when the Jigsaw killer is revealed at the end, but we’ll get to that later. Spoilers and whatnot.

As it turns out, Jigsaw is punishing Adam for being a voyeuristic photographer and stalking people for money. Yeah, that makes sense. When Lawrence gives Adam his tape to play, they learn that it’s Lawrence’s goal to kill Adam to save his family before the clock strikes 6.

On the plus side, you got *plenty* of time.

[JIGSAW] *Let the game begin*.
This guy loves games.

Another not insignificant portion of this movie is solving puzzles. That’s not a criticism, I actually like it for that. Honestly, I wish the movie focused on it more than it does, because when Lawrence hears a message whispering “Follow your heart” at the end of his tape I kinda perk up. The detective part of my brain gets giddy trying to figure out what that means.

They follow the clue which leads to them discovering a pair of flimsy hacksaws. Adam’s not a fan.

That chipped piece of glass will be important later.

Lawrence just gives up trying to cut through his chains when he has a revelation.

*He doesn’t want us to cut through our chains, he wants us to cut through our feet.*
One might call that “foreshadowing.”

It’s this revelation that releases a flashback from the depths of Lawrence’s mind. A flashback that he logically shouldn’t be having because he wasn’t present for it. Also, one thing we might want to get used to is goofy transitions. Look at this.

I will admit that it does look cool to some degree.
However, they mostly take you out of the moment.
A transition is supposed to keep the narrative flowing from one scene to the next, and this is just more distracting than anything else.
Since James Wan was relatively new to directing at the time I can’t be too mad at it, but I will make jokes.
Can ya blame me?

It’s in this flashback that we get an idea of how long the Jigsaw killer has been at large and how he operates. We also see the effort that law enforcement is putting in to try and bring him to justice. Lawrence is also suspected of being the Jigsaw killer because some detectives found his penlight at the scene of one of the murders. It’s not very convincing.

I could get behind it if they made more of an effort to show Lawrence being untrustworthy or if they didn’t show everything he did while he wasn’t working at the hospital. However, Lawrence is portrayed as a bigger victim in this movie than Adam, and we do see everything he does outside of being a doctor.

For now this concept is merely touched on and not deeply explained, so we’ll go into more detail when the movie does. At the moment, three cops named Detective Steven Sing (played by Ken Leung), Detective David Tapp (played by Danny Glover), and Detective Kerry (played by Dina Meyer) are looking over Jigsaw’s “latest” crime scene.

It’s here we also get our idea of how Jigsaw’s mind works. This guy’s name was Paul and Jigsaw put him in this trap because he has crippling depression and attempted suicide a month prior to this. Something tells me Jigsaw is not the most supportive friend. Basically, Jigsaw believes that people who aren’t appreciating their life enough need to be put in these death trap scenarios so they can be rehabilitated and turn over a new leaf upon their escape. Or just die.

For instance, Paul here was put in a cage filled with barbed wire that he had to crawl through and make it to the exit before time ran out. He didn’t make it. How about this guy?

He was locked in here because Jigsaw caught him faking an illness. Now his job is to get the antidote to the poison that’s currently running through his veins by unlocking the safe in the middle of the room. To do that he has to uncover the combination that’s written on the walls with the candle while there’s broken glass all over the floor, he’s completely naked, and covered head to toe in a flammable substance. I think I see why this movie is so popular.

For real, the creativity of these death traps is genuinely impressive. When it comes to ‘slasher’ horror, there are only so many ways killers can off their victims. Sure a lot of people like slashers, but they do get pretty repetitive after a while. This film really pushes that standard to its limit by coming up with as many unique ways to kill people as it possibly can, and I totally respect that. Also, the funniest thing about this kill specifically is that the casting director cast her ex-husband to play Mark.

I know this isn’t the point, but now I want to know all *about* his and the casting director’s relationship.
Give me the goss!

This brings us to -

*You know, technically speaking, [Jigsaw]’s not really a murderer.*
Good golly, we’re doing this bull crap?

Sure, he’s not technically a murderer because he never actually killed anyone. He just stole people off the street, sedated them, and created a death game for them to participate in against their will. If they die Jigsaw didn’t necessarily kill them, but at the same time if Jigsaw never took these people off the street they’d still be alive. Basic math!

Anyway, we see Lawrence at the hospital describing his patient’s current condition when a random orderly gets annoyed with Lawrence’s use of medical jargon.

Like I mentioned earlier, Lawrence is suspected of being the Jigsaw killer so he gets called into his office by Detective Tapp and Detective Sing so they can question him. The film tries to sow seeds of doubt in Lawrence by making him unwilling to provide a clear alibi for himself, but we eventually see what he was doing the night the killing took place anyway. Spoilers: he wasn’t admiring his death trap handiwork.

For some reason Tapp and Sing also invite in one of Jigsaw’s surviving victims named Amanda (played by Shawnee Smith) to tell her story to Lawrence. It’s unclear why they do this, but it gives us one of the most iconic sequences in modern horror cinema so I’m not complaining.

She tells the story of how she woke up in a room with a strange contraption on her head. What really makes this sequence iconic to me is the introductory tape she’s shown which introduces her (and the world) to Jigsaw’s partner in crime: Billy the Puppet, Jigsaw’s catchphrase,

and of course, the creatively named “Reverse Bear Trap” that’s currently adorning Amanda’s head. Through pure grit and strength of will, Amanda manages to overcome the game by getting the key to the Reverse Bear Trap that’s hidden in her cell mate’s stomach and using it to remove the trap from her head a split second before it went off. Good for her.

Billy is proud of her and back in the “present” it seems like this moment in her life was a transformative one.

Back in the present present, Adam makes the discovery that the glass he broke is a two-way mirror. After further breaking it, they find out that behind the mirror is a camera watching everything they do. The person watching that camera footage seems to be having fun.

Let’s celebrate this discovery with another flashback. Whee… Now we see Lawrence at home with his family including his wife Alison (played by Monica Potter) and his daughter Diana (played by Makenzie Vega (no relation to Vincent)). Diana sees someone in her room and goes to tell her mom. Her very bad mom.

*Mommy…there’s a man in my room*
*Oh honey, are you sure he’s not just hiding in your imagination?*
What kind of parent tells their child this?
A *bad* one!

Since this man is big and scary, they need strong daddy Lawrence to go and teach him a lesson. He doesn’t find anything though and tries to calm Diana down with a quick game of “This Little Piggy.” Right before they can finish, Lawrence gets paged from “work” and has to leave. Diana isn’t a fan.

To me that’s a pretty relatable moment. Since my mom was, and still is, a nurse, when I was growing up I didn’t have many opportunities to interact with her since she was working a lot of the time. I’m glad that she was able to provide for us as much as she did, but when I was a kid I didn’t understand why she was gone all the time, so I feel a bit of a connection with Diana in this scene for that.

As Lawrence leaves, Alison confronts him in a rather odd way.

*How can you walk through life pretending that you’re happy?*
That’s the first thing she says to him.
It’s such a weird way to begin a conversation that it’s kinda funny.

They have some pretty standard married couple argument dialogue while Diana gets spooked by the man in her room. Because Lawrence didn’t check the closet. SERIOUSLY?! If someone was hiding in your daughter’s room, the most obvious place for them to do that would be in the closet. Weirdly enough that might be the stupidest thing in this movie.

Also, we only see this happen after we cut back to the Shit Room where Lawrence shows Adam pictures of his family and Adam discovers a polaroid of Alison and Diana tied up with a clue on the back of it. Personally, if they were going to show the scene of how Lawrence’s family got captured, why don’t they show it in one piece? We were only away from that scene for not even 2 minutes, so what was the point of cutting away?

This goes back to my biggest issue with the film: it cuts around too much. I still stand by that it would’ve been much more interesting if it only involved Adam and Lawrence alone in the Shit Room. Nothing else. No flashbacks, no cutaways, no subplots. Creating intrigue isn’t as difficult as you think with only two characters and their thoughts.

WARNING: Tangent incoming.

Through the actions they take and the various clues scattered throughout the room we’d be able to learn more about who these people are and whether we can root for them or not. Got a low budget? No problem. Shooting two people in a shit-covered bathroom for an hour and 40 minutes is stupid cheap. By having Adam and Lawrence as the only focus of the movie they’d be able to get us invested in their struggle for survival and it could even be a stark commentary on the human condition too.

I will admit there is a pretty big problem with this idea: Leigh Whannell and Cary Elwes. If the movie were to only focus on Adam and Lawrence, the actors playing them would have to be top-notch. Leigh Whannell isn’t the best actor, so you’d probably have to replace him with someone else. Personally, if they were able to get Danny Glover to play Detective Tapp then they could’ve just had him play Adam.

It could’ve been different and gripping considering Glover’s past roles playing both likable, unlikable, and difficult to like characters so I think it would’ve worked seeing him play a character the audience can’t entirely root for. As far as Elwes is concerned, the only thing that’s not working about him is his accent. Just have him drop it and roll with his normal accent. There’s no real reason to have him pretend to be American anyway, so why bother?

With those elements altered, I feel like this could’ve been a fierce horror film and one to heavily challenge the audience’s perception of reality. Not only could it have been a game-changing horror film, but it could’ve transcended the genre in ways that no other film like it has done before. Instead it just seems to coast on the creativity of its kills while still appealing primarily to horror fans and not breaking down barriers between fanbases.

I suppose that’s fine for what it wants to be, but it is still disappointing to me considering what it could’ve been. Although, in the name of fairness, I should go easier on this movie. Not just on account of James Wan being new to directing, but also because I did this in my review of The Dark Crystal: “I shouldn’t judge a movie based on what it could’ve been, but what it is.”

So, what is it?

Tangent = Over

First off, it’s not over yet since we see the bad man in Diana’s closet tie her and Alison up. The bad man turns out to be the orderly from the hospital earlier. Dun dun dun! His name is Zep Hindle (he’s played by Michael Emerson) and he could be our Jigsaw killer. Although, Zep makes a fatal mistake when he pokes his head out of the curtains of the Gordon’s window, because Detective Tapp sees him from across the street.

How did Detective Tapp see him? He was spying on Lawrence’s house because he’s obsessed with the Jigsaw case. Wait, he’s obsessed with the Jigsaw case? The last time we saw him he didn’t seem to be an obsessed cop. Why is he suddenly Vince Vaughn from The Cell, then? No idea. Oh wait, maybe the movie will tell us in, wait for it…

ANOTHER FLASHBACK!

I take it back, THAT was the stupidest thing in the movie. At this point I’d actually be less surprised if a giant green Eric Bana popped up out of nowhere. What’s this flashback about? Well, Tapp basically regrets letting Lawrence go and he still thinks he’s Jigsaw. He’s wrong. Also, he manages to find out where Jigsaw’s lair is and takes Sing there with him. Sing dies.

Because a killer who specializes in death traps totally wouldn’t booby trap his lair.
Yeah, you deserved that.

I could go on about how silly this part of the movie is, especially when they find a guy tied to a trap in the lair only for them to hear someone coming. So what do they do? They decide to hide in a corner and leave the guy tied to the trap just to “see what the killer does.” What do you think he’s gonna do? Best case scenario: serious maiming, worst case scenario: death.

Anyway, while most of the middle portion of this movie is pretty forgettable, especially when the focus isn’t on the Shit Room or the death traps, at the very least it is leading to a big reveal. Since this is likely what the movie is trying to do, I don’t want to judge it too harshly on what I would consider to be filler. Instead I’ll go into more detail once we have a clearer picture of this movie’s intentions.

So that’s why Tapp is an obsessed cop.
The movie must’ve gotten those two scenes mixed up.

While this is going on, mistrust starts to set in between our two bros Adam and Lawrence back in the Shit Room. It’s revealed that Adam knows more about Lawrence than he was letting on from the beginning and Lawrence hasn’t exactly been a “model husband.” When Jigsaw admonished Adam for being a voyeur, it turns out Adam was being paid to spy on Lawrence before this happened.

Also, Adam caught Lawrence in the act of cheating on his wife.

*I did* ***not*** *cheat on her!*
Sure, but being in a motel room with your secretary **alone** is not a good look no matter what you say.

While our boys are busy getting personal with each other, they totally forgot they were on a time limit.

Since Lawrence didn’t kill Adam like he was instructed, Zep goes to kill Alison and Diana. Before that happens, let me just say that during one of the Shit Room scenes, Lawrence came across a cell phone that can only receive calls and not make them. Why did I mention that? Now, Zep gives Lawrence a call to let him know he failed, but Alison gets the jump on Zep causing a fight to break out.

Since Lawrence can’t see anything he assumes that his family is killed. He also decides that now is a great time to try and follow Jigsaw’s rules that he already failed to follow. Because if you kill Adam now Zep will un-kill your family? Just “Ctrl Z” the whole thing? Sure. The fight also gets Tapp’s attention from across the street. In case you were curious, Alison and Diana survive (mostly with Tapp’s help) and Tapp ends up chasing Zep all the way back to the Shit Room in one of the worst car chases I’ve ever seen on film.

It doesn’t even make sense, they just rapidly cut back and forth between shots of both of them driving.
I’m so amped right now.

This eventually results in Tapp catching up with Zep, them having a tussle, and Zep killing Tapp. I checked…and I don’t feel anything. Meanwhile, Lawrence gets more and more hysterical until he ends up cutting his own foot off with the hacksaw from earlier.

Despite everything, I think this part is pretty well done. It’s disorienting, shocking, and crazy as hell which is exactly what you want. The only problem I have is that we clearly saw that Lawrence’s family is okay yet he still saws his foot off. Sure he doesn’t know they’re alive, but it goes back to what I said about having this whole movie being just in the Shit Room.

If we only saw Adam and Lawrence alone in the room then we as the audience wouldn’t know what happened to his family too making his decision to cut his foot off seem more justified. Sorry, I know at this point I’m probably beating a dead horse so I should just appreciate this scene for being as crazy and over-the-top as it wants.

Damn, he is so pale.
It’s safe to say this guy needs a doctor.

Like I said, Lawrence tries to kill Adam by cashing in Chekhov’s bullet from earlier, putting it in the gun from the dead man’s hand, and using it to shoot Adam. In the shoulder. Yeah, he’s so dead. Zep stumbles in to kill Lawrence for failing to kill Adam sooner, but Adam springs back to life (shocker) and bashes Zep’s head in with a toilet tank lid.

Don’t worry Adam, your savior is here.

*I - have - to go - get help.*
Right, the guy crawling on the floor looking like a zombie actively bleeding out with one foot is gonna save his life.
I’d sooner believe Westley from The Princess Bride when he could **barely move** would be able to save his life.

At least things are looking up, I mean the Jigsaw killer is dead. Right? Well, after Lawrence very bravely crawls away, Adam searches Zep’s body for a key to his chains only to find another tape recorder. After playing it, some very important puzzle pieces start to fall into place.

[JIGSAW] *Hello, Mr. Hindle, or as they called you around the hospital: Zep.*
Wait, so who’s Jigsaw then?

We learn through this tape that Jigsaw only used Zep in this game to ensure that everything went off without a hitch. To keep Zep in line as well, Jigsaw poisoned him and promised to give him the antidote only if he acted as this game’s “moderator.” So…what now?

**WHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT?**
You gotta hand it to this guy for laying on a nasty-ass bathroom floor for a solid 8 hours.

Who is this?

This is John Kramer (played by Tobin Bell).
a.k.a.: The Jigsaw Killer.
a.k.a.: the cancer patient Lawrence was talking about earlier.
Also, I gotta be honest, between this movie and Breaking Bad, TV and film are giving me the sense that cancer does some pretty weird things to people.

John tells Adam that the key to his chains is in the bathtub. The same bathtub he woke up in at the beginning of the movie. The same key that went down the drain. Bummer. Honestly though, how was Adam supposed to get that key? Was he seriously supposed to wake up, underwater, know the key is there, and grab it before the water goes down the drain? That’s pretty dumb.

Despite this, the reveal of Jigsaw is probably the best part of the movie. With the WTF twist, the background music entitled “Hello Zep” being an absolute banger, and this iconic closing line -

it’s hard to not call this awesome. However, does it make up for everything I mentioned previously? It’s a bit complicated, but I’ll try my best to explain.

Despite not being super compelling during most of its runtime, Saw definitely knew how to stick the landing which is a very clever choice. Being the main thing most audiences are going to leave the theater with, making that ending as good as possible really helps the film stand out in your mind and is likely what elevated its popularity at the time it came out.

Sure it still has plenty of boring moments and awkward transitions, but for the most part I’d consider this movie to be a perfectly serviceable horror flick. When it gets creative and interesting, it really gets creative and interesting which is enough for me to say I’m glad I saw Saw. I still wish I got to see the version of Saw I created for myself in my head, but for what I got it wasn’t too bad.

I’ve made plenty of jokes at this movie’s expense throughout this review, but if I’m being honest it’s because I know deep down I like it. For horror fans reading this, I’m sure that even if the movie as a whole isn’t your cup of tea there’ll probably be something in it that you’ll like. That is both the beauty and the harsh reality of an experimental film like this one.

Some ideas are going to be amazing while others fall flat. Those transitions certainly fall into the latter category. Although, the death traps and general premise are solidly in the former category. In the end it depends a lot on your personal preferences, but I think that if you’re looking for a movie that’s creatively dark and demented for this Spooky Season, Saw could just be the movie for your weekend movie night this week.

For my rating, I feel like this movie is a 3/5 puppets. The more I think about it the more I feel like I have a bit of a soft spot for this movie. I mostly appreciate the risks it takes. Even if it doesn’t always work, just seeing filmmakers go all in on the gritty and raw is commendable in my view, mostly because the MPAA is stacked against them. However, one thing I have a hard time enjoying in films is boredom.

When it comes to this movie’s slower moments, I feel like they weren’t fleshed out enough to make them as interesting as the batshit crazy moments which is why I have a hard time rating this movie any higher. If anything in this review piqued your interest though, by all means take a look and decide for yourself. Billy is waiting. I like Billy.

(I make no claim of ownership for any of the images used in this post)

(Each of them are owned entirely by their respective copyright holders, which are not me)

(I’m just a humble blogger who talks about movies, I do not make them)

(Yet)

The Shining

The Blair Witch Project