Review of Saw (2004) by Logan A — 26 Jul 2012

While it definitely stands out against the other horror-releases at the time, Saw still unfortunately had to resort to the lowest-common-denominator as far horror films go. What it had as far as uniqueness as a horror film is commendable, but the unique elements are overshadowed by the other more typical horror elements.

Jigsaw starts out as an interesting antagonist that appears to have a mission and motivation outside of the typical horror-villain that kills people because he's evil and/or crazy, but his motivation and methodology become deeply muddled before the end of the film (and it gets even worse in the sequels).

The movie starts out relying on tension and ingenuity, but it eventually devolves into keeping your attention by pointing a gun in a kid's face.

The movie is generally well-written and it does end on a fairly well-done and shocking twist, but overall Saw is hard to recommend in retrospect. The flaws and internal conflicts of logic have become much more apparent now that the hype around the extremely (and to me, inexplicably) popular and profitable series of horror-films has died-down.

The saddest part is that though Saw is only slightly above-average, it's still the best in the series.