Review of Saw (2004) by Matthew H — 03 Mar 2014

Saw is the perfect movie for hardcore horror fans who want to see a good gory film, because Saw has more gore than a pig slaughterhouse. Seriously, I mean there's always someone bleeding profusely at some point of this film! Yet another reason fans of the genre will be enamored with Saw.

Besides surpassing the average genre fare, Saw is intelligent. Unlike the usual slasher or gory pic, Saw's story is, for the most part, logically sound, although I put "logically" very lightly. Obviously, it's not every day you wake up in a dirty abandoned bathroom chained to a pipe! For what the film was, it made relative sense. At least, it made more sense than most of the other horror flicks I've seen. The story was engaging, and very compelling. There were a few gaps in logic and minor plot holes, but that's pretty standard for any horror movie. The real logical person in that situation would either find a way out in the first 5 minutes or give up and find a way to kill themselves. But a 5 minute movie where the main character dies in the first 5 minutes wouldn't sell at the box office, would it? So the filmmakers have to suspend logic in some places to move the story along, something most critics don't understand. That doesn't make the movie bad, because believe me, if the mentioned critic saw the "5-minute Saw" I talked about before, he/she wouldn't complain about the real film at all.

Moreover, Saw actually had pretty decent acting. The characters were well-rounded, and this movie was a good kick-starter for the career of Leigh Whannell. Cary Elwes, who I've seen in Twister, Princess Bride, and Robin Hood: Men In Tights, turned his usual goofy character into a serious, dramatic role as Doctor Lawrence Gordon. Desperateness loomed in his eyes the whole film, as he had no idea what was to happen to his wife and child being held captive by an unknown man he thinks is "The Jigsaw Killer". Danny Glover, who almost always dies in a movie, (It seems he's almost surpassed Leonardo DiCaprio in movie deaths!) takes on a detective role as Detective Tapp, obsessed with finding the Jigsaw Killer after Jigsaw kills Tapp's partner, played by Ken Leung.

This film was a good watch, especially if you like horror films, and will leave a bad taste in your mouth. But that was the point!