Review of Saw (2003) by Max B — 26 Aug 2012

One can compare watching the Saw series to taking Advil; it might do something for you with one or two, but when you get to numbers like six and seven, you just get sick and die. That is how I would describe my exhausting experience with this seemingly endless franchise. In honor of the series' welcome departure, let's take a trip down memory lane with the original Saw, the 2004 film that started it all. Surprisingly, it's not that bad; comparatively speaking, anyway. It has a reasonably interesting story that plays out stylistically onscreen, and uses blood and gore sparingly and even somewhat tastefully. The focus stays on the cleverly designed, psychologically disturbing 'games' for which the series is well known. However, the film also suffers from generally uninspired acting, some utterly absurd twists, and rather cheap-looking, ugly cinematography. Saw isn't a great horror movie, but it is leagues ahead of its trashy and gratuitous sequels, and still manages to blindly entertain.

The film begins shrouded in mystery, with two kidnapped men trapped in a bathroom and no way out. There is no explanation given for this, and we have to puzzle out the situation alongside the main characters. Almost all further exposition is given through flashbacks, and through these we learn more about the characters. It's an uncommon storytelling approach for a horror flick, and it works. More characteristic of the genre, however, are silly twists, which Saw does contain in excess. A couple of them are alright, a few seem contrived and unnecessary, and the final one completely jumps the shark and takes the whole film down several notches on the quality scale. Game over indeed, Jigsaw.

What would Saw be without its beloved torture games? There have been many of these in each film, varying greatly in regards to imagination and amount of carnage. The best tend to have more of the former and less of the latter. The most famous (and certainly most awesome) scenario came from this film, and is, curiously enough, the only one where the victim came out alive and unscathed. I am of course referring to the reverse bear trap game, in which a death machine mask would rip a woman's face apart unless she found the key in time. This scene was wrought with great tension and suspense, and was the highlight of the movie. The reason it's so well-remembered is because we never actually saw the reverse bear trap kill anyone; the effect was simply left to the imagination, and is a great testament to the idea that what you see is less effective than what you don't.

Speaking of things we don't see, the movie is surprisingly low on blood and gore. Seeing as the poster advertises nothing but a severed foot, I rather expected to see someone's foot get cut off. Someone's foot did in fact get cut off, but I was shocked that they barely even showed it happening; instead they simply hinted at it, cutting the camera away and letting our brains figure out the rest. It was almost like the film was trying to be classy! And even sort of succeeding! The entirety of the film plays out like this as well. I already said that we never saw the reverse bear trap kill anyone, and none of the other torture scenarios try to be too gross either. The focus remains where it should, which is on the psychological aspect of the games. Saw is at its best in these moments.

At its worst, however, it can be pretty bad. Saw has a few clever ideas, but it's not a very nice looking movie. Every shot, regardless of setting, looks very dull and grimy. It just radiates cheapness, which is of course due to its very modest budget. Come to think of it, that's probably why they didn't show more of the foot getting severed. The camerawork is also pretty lifeless and lackluster, with no interesting angles or memorable shots. The camera spends most of its time stuck on the deadpan faces of the two main characters, played by Leigh Whannel (the film's cowriter) and Cary Elwes. Both actors give bland performances alongside the hammy Danny Glover. The best performance came from Tobin Bell as Jigsaw, and all he did was provide his voice for a clown puppet.

When compared to its sequels, Saw is the best of the bunch, but that still isn't saying much. It has plenty of problems, but the good does very slightly outweigh the bad. I give it 6 out of 10 stars.