Who needs a big budget?

Rating: Null/10 (20 November 2011)

Forget about the never-ending stream of sequels - I suppose that if you like the horror genre which involves people being mutilated and killed by increasingly involved methods of extravagant complexity, then the sequels may very well be just what you're looking for - because the first is a true original.
It is also a wonderful example of the fact that you don't need to throw oodles of cash at a movie to make it a good one - the cast list which you see is entirely illusory, because this film is pretty much a two hander in a single claustrophobic set. Cary Elwes and co-writer Leigh Whannell are chained to pipes in a disused basement bathroom, with a single hacksaw. There is a time limit which precludes sawing through the chain/s. The only way one of them will survive is by sawing a foot off.
This is such a simple scenario that you wouldn't think it was capable of subtlety and complexity. Yet the brilliant script by Whannell and director James Wan twists and turns all over the place.
I say, not for the first time (and, no doubt, not for the last), that a good film requires a good script, and this is one of the very best.