Pushing the boundaries of horror

Rating: Null/10 (30 October 2004)

But that's a bad thing. In society, there are certain lines you just don't cross. In some cases, ('South Park' comes to mind), barriers are crossed with humorous and usually well-intentioned results. 'Saw' has none of these though, and crosses some barriers with such a mean spirited savageness that I practically walked out.
Cary Elwes leads the cast as Dr. Lawrence Gordon. Brilliant oncologist, but less than stellar family man, Dr. Gordon awakes one morning to find himself chained to a pipe in a horrifically disgusting bathroom with a young man named Adam (film's co-writer Leigh Whannell). Between the two men is a dead body, and from there begins the twisted game of a killer the police call Jigsaw. Once Lawrence and Adam figure out what's going on, the killer's previous exploits are told in flashback (and poorly done). The always reliable Danny Glover plays Detective David Tapp, whose obsession with catching Jigsaw leads him to be removed from the force after a breakdown following his partner's death (Ken Leung) at Jigsaw's hands.
Monica Potter is good enough for what little screen time (not to mention dialogue) she gets as Alison Gordon (wife), Dina Meyer reappears briefly as Kerry, another officer investigating the crimes, and Makenzie Vega chips in as Diana, Lawrence's daughter.
OKfirst off.an open note to all directors, especially those of you raised on that cultural void we call MTV. STOP THE JERKY CAMERA AND SPED UP FOOTAGE. Much like with 'Resident Evil: Apocalypse', the scenes of Jigsaw's victims are sped up and herky-jerky, making them practically unwatchable. This form of film-making was dead in 2000, quit beating this dead horse.
This film is probably the most repulsive, vile, repugnant piece of trash I have sat through in my 33 years. In fact, this movie is lower on the 'lowest common denominator' scale than 'House of 1000 Corpses' was. **POSSIBLE SPOILER** Using a stethoscope to examine a child's heartbeat while a gun is held to her mother's head is appealing only to those of us in the community who should probably be under observation anyway. **OVER** There are films that are brutal and a test to watch ('Texas Chainsaw', '28 Days Later', etc) but when you walk out of them you don't feel like you've just been violated.
Clearly director Wan and writer Whannell have a brilliant idea, with potential far eclipsing that of 'Seven', but instead allow (either by lack of writing skill or overabundance of depravity) themselves to basically do nothing more than test how much they can get away with just to see what that point will be.
An outstanding concept that quickly descends into a sick example of excess. You two should be ashamed.
0 out of 5 and I'm sorry for having plugged the potential of this movie the past few months.