An original, highly scary psychological horror flick

Rating: 10/10 (31 October 2004)

If your idea of a horror movie is a guy who just wont die chasing around a bunch of idiot teenagers with those jump-out-at-you-and-make-you-scream scenes that so many horror movies rely on these days, save yourself your money and don't see Saw. If you're looking for a unique horror film (unique, despite some similarities to Seven) with plenty of twists, this may be the best eight bucks you ever spend.
The first two minutes of this movie take place in almost total darkness. In most movies, when there's a scene that takes place in darkness, it's bright enough for the audience to make everything out; the darkness is more implied. In Saw, you'll barely see a thing until the lights go on. A small touch, but I liked that a lot. You'll quickly realize this movie isn't like others as a big chunk of it takes place in one room.
Before I get ahead of myself, let me break down the basic plot. Two men wake up in a room, chained up by the leg on opposite sides. One of them, a doctor, believes he knows of the person that's responsible. A killer - though technically he hadn't ever killed anyone - despises people who take their lives for granted, so he places them in sick trials where their fate relies heavily on their desire to remain alive. In the case of Adam and Lawrence - the two men in the room - Lawrence has to kill Adam, or his wife and daughter will die. There's little more to be said without spoiling parts of the plot. I feel it's always best to see a movie knowing as little as possible about it.
As I said above, there are very few (though some) jump-out-at-you scenes. Saw is more a psychological horror. There's not some scary guy with a knife following the main characters wherever they go. It's a movie where if you were to imagine yourself in the situation of the main characters, you would be truly terrified. There's nowhere to run, nobody to get help, no way to stop the man trying to end your life. The only way out is to do what he says.
There are a few scenes with fast, jerky camera movements that you'll likely get sick of two seconds after you see them. Though this camera trick is used too much, it could have been used a lot more and I'm sure everyone's thankful that it wasn't. I've heard complaints about the acting from Carry Elwes, but I didn't notice it. There's also a rather major plothole that I can't go into without spoiling the movie, but to be honest it didn't bother me at all. Otherwise, there's little to complain about with this movie. When seeing it, my friend said he wished there was more gore, so that's another thing to take note of if all you want from a horror movie is blood and guts (though, don't worry, there is definitely some gore).
Typically, I don't enjoy horror movies. I find them for the most part to be unoriginal money-makers, that rely too heavily on special effects. Saw is most definitely an exception, and despite many mixed reviews, I'm confident it'll go down as a classic, remembered in years to come as movies such as Seven and Silence of the Lambs. You may love it or you may hate it, but it's one of the most original horror movies to come out in years, and for that fact alone it's worth seeing at least once.