bogus

Rating: 1/10 (24 April 2005)

Definitely one of the weakest horror/suspense thriller ever seen; I don't mind low budget, but I do mind inconsistency and idiotic scripts. it is unexplained why two people in a room need to be tortured and why they can oversee a man lying for a couple of hours on the floor in between them (supposedly dead) but never see a bit of motion and him breathing (which he'd need to in order to get up in the ending as the villain. And why is this guy even there, nothing gives us a clue about the characters and their oh so wrong lives? And why don't our 'heroes' question his presence and why is one sawing of his foot instead of using the saw for grabbing the cell-phone and why do cops act like everyday farmers handed a gun for the first time in their lives and why, why...? Aesthetically the film is consistent: Seven-ish grind and industrial music; with visual reminiscences of Dave McKean's comic Mr. Punch this film has not anything which would make it worth watching in the 21st century. Mr Wan and his screenwriter should eventually spend more time on really working on a story instead of going with the first idea which comes to mind ... let's do a movie about two guys locked up in a room. That's NOT a story, that's a scene-description!!! But alas, the viewers are probably satisfied with averageness and long for Saw2. Maybe somebody in Hollywood has some common sense about wasting time and prevents this from happening. Most likely not.