Sick & Messy & Flawed & Derivative... but Good

Rating: 7/10 (23 February 2006)

Let's get the negatives out of the way first. The film does draw heavily on classic horror/slasher themes: it's not much more than "take a bunch of people and chop 'em up". Secondly the film seems padded; every time we move away from the room and the two main character the intensity drops. Also, I didn't find Cary Elwes remotely convincing. He is acted off the screen by an unknown! Even the "corpse" shows more personality! And yet.... the shocks keep coming, and there are some real shocks in this film. The gore is not as extreme as I had been led to believe, but it is used effectively and judiciously. The plot twists make you jump, even when you wonder why you hadn't seen them coming. I was saying to myself "so who is the dead man?" and "why is Jigsaw such an nonthreatening geek?" but still didn't crack the code until the final scene. It's also the kind of movie that makes you realise what you can do with a tiny budget and some balls.