Review of Saw (2003) by Tristan M — 27 Mar 2015

There is a process, a very important and not to be underestimated process in which any film must be made, the story must be to some degree engaging, have characters that we can either get behind or force us to test our morals and find solace in an antagonist, the script must be of some standard and you actors have to be cast appropriately for the roles.

This is a humble rule of film, if you have these fundimentals, essentially your film, to some degree will not falter. Now when it comes to making a horror movie, these ideas are essential in order to create a word that truly engages us so much we are scared and immersed completely in the world, sadly very few people understand this, not only movie makers but movie goers and the results usually come out like Saw! You guys all remember Saw right? You know that franchise that was notorious for defining the genre "Torture Porn", milked its franchise with countless installments and oddly enough got a massive commercial following.

See what Saw done, was essentially steer film goers in a new direction, instead of being forced to be scared, the creators of this film decided that in order to make you squirm was to just show you brutal and horrifying acts of violence in order to make you feel scared.

The problem is that violence, when over used, becomes something of a desensitisation after prolonged exposure. Meaning that any act of violence can be over looked and ultimately yawned upon as the audience feel no shock by its inclusion after a while.

Thus leading to movie goers darting to a cinema every halloween to ultimately see what atrocious violence they could witness and for it to be called a horror movie, without really giving 2 shits about the actual content of the film.

Now as I mentioned earlier, there is a process or set of rules that must be followed in order to ensure your films success, to varying degrees, Saw succeeds in only on of those mentioned rules, The story is, to of a certain standard, engaging.

To sum it up, 2 "Random men", Adam and Doctor Lawrence wake up in a disused toilet, chained by their feet to piping, they have no idea why or what is going on, to make matters worse, there happens to be a dead man in the middle of the room and we soon find ourselves engaged in a game of deception between the 2 in order to survive.

Here that sounds not bad, your right, it does sound not bad, lets continue, on further inspection it actually turns out that there is a serial killer who wishes to test peoples faith in life, who has named himself Jigsaw, who appears to have put him there and is also responsible for a whole host of other sadistic games in where the victims must follow out torturous proceedures in order to survive, luckily for someone a crack team police duo are on the prowl and are getting closer to Jigsaw, or are they? Dun Dun Duuuuuun! so plenty to work with, some of it not exactly needed but hey better to have lots to work with and whittle it down rather than have to little and be forced to beef it up by eh filler.

So how does Saw manage to tear its own foot off? Well firstly, there is a large list here so please prepare yourself, the script is a fucking abomination. I literally am not kidding. Ever watched a film where people just saw either the most obvious of things in order to move the plot along or where peoples motivations are just commentary as they do them? Well Saw isnt subtle about anything ladies and gentlemen, Saw literally walks you through every single, minute detail in dialogue just in case your poor brain cant rely on its own power or your ability to look at a visual and get what is happening.

Which is kind of bizarre because James Wan is directing this and his visuals are actually pretty straight on the mark. So you will have characters either voicing everything they are doing or voicing exactly what you are saying as you watch the film.

If they had cut even half the dialogue out of this film it would be dramatically better. Next thing, the film cuts like the editor had just discovered the cut tool for the first time, decided to get wired on coffee and just snap everything to shit.

The film cuts so much your eyes are fuckin assaulted by monotonous actions in order to make them feel desperate, when probably just showing us the desperation of the monotony through the actors face would have worked.

.. Oh wait, thats right, you went and completely miscast your movie! Shit, thats why the editor is trying to spice things up. Cary Elwes, who I think is outstanding, is horrifically miscast as the "good" Doctor, who when he is one note is bearable but when it comes down to the distress is just not able to cut it, without you pissing yourself with laughter.

His latter scenes are so cringe worthy as he jumps between desperate man and 5 year old, you have zero sympathy for the guy, you couldnt care less if his family die and thats a bad thing, I should care, I really should but I dont, I dont care if he makes it out, I dont care if his fellow prisoner Adam lives as he is even more annoying and cry babyish.

Neither of our protagonists we are drawn to like or believe, or even relate with. Leaving us with Danny Glover as the detective, who should be sacked because the his character is written as such a guff cop that I have no idea how he got a job in the first place.

Tobin Bell gives the best performance of the entire piece and when you see the film, you'll know that doesnt mean much what so ever. There are zero scares, Zero! Nothing is frightening at all, the must yuck inducing moment is when Adam stuffs his hand down a toilet full of shit, something we would most likely rather be doing that watching this movie.

The film also has god awful pacing issues, you cannot connect with any one story going on as its all mixed so shockingly together that by the time you have started to invest in one story it cuts away and takes you back to another and leaving you on it for ages.

This film would actually be decent if it cut a lot of needless plot and sequel baiting out, hired the right actors for the job and got a script that was more visual that dialogue heavy. Silence would have been golden in this film.

What can I give the film credit for? It has some inventive torturous devices, the sets all look really good, the camera work at times is of a certain standard and the music is pretty creepy, if only really used sparingly.

But thats it, everything else is just off. In a film where so much could have went right, it just sets up a money making machine for idiots. No excuse me as I go and torture myself while watching the rest of the franchise.