High-tensioned at first, then just ugly and preposterous

Rating: 5/10 (2 April 2005)

Saw (2004) Cary Elwes, Leigh Whannell, Danny Glover, Ken Leung, Monica Potter, Makenzie Vega, Michael Emerson, Dina Meyer, Shawnee Smith, D: James Wan. Misanthropic exercise in distinct unpleasantry and pretentious visual style about a nihilistic sicko who devises hideously intricate scenarios for his victims to kill themselves. Elwes plays a doctor who wakes up shackled in a decrepit bathroom with another man; their captor's instructions order the doctor to kill the other in eight hours, with his family's lives on the line if he fails the task. Inconsistent performance by Elwes who's believable at first, then hams it up in the final third. Loaded with grisly strategems of torture, which are scary and ingenious enough for the squeamish to be warned, but it's messy, overdirected, and ugly to no end, capped off by a ridiculously impossible twist. Feature debut by Wan. 100 min., rated R. **