A masterpiece.

Rating: 10/10 (24 September 2008)

The Story: A photographer & a surgeon awaken inside a basement, chained to pipes. They are the victims of the Jigsaw Killer, who abducts people & places them in situations where they have to make a ruthless choice in order to survive. Meanwhile, a former police detective is on Jigsaw's trail.
A conceptual blend of "Se7en", where a killer commits crimes in order to make a point about morals, & "Cube", where a group of people are trapped in a booby-trapped prison, "Saw" is perhaps one of the best films to come out of the new century. With a premise that pulls you in from the word go, as well as a slew of ruthless plot twists, the film uses the main concept to transform the serial killer film into something entirely new. The acting is outstanding & the script is full of surprises, which are designed to push the envelope in terms of torture, something which is taken in a major way by the sequels. The situations the victims find themselves in are utterly gripping; there's the man who has to crawl through a room full of razor wire, another victim who is covered with a flammable substance & told to open a safe but given a candle to read the numbers, & in the film's best moment, a drug addict who has to kill her cellmate in order to find a key to unlock a boobytrap placed on her head. Just when you think you've figured out what's going to happen, the film turns on it's head. A modern-day masterpiece.