The writer Saw Seven

Rating: Null/10 (30 September 2004)

This is the film which everyone has been hearing a lot about recently. The original poster campaign was deemed 'too disturbing' and pulled. All the critics are fighting over who can create the best tag-line (see saw or saw saw?). Everyone is whispering about how it is 'that film where people hack their limbs off!' Well, if that is all you are expecting to see prepare to be either a) disappointed, or b) very pleased depending on what floats your boat.
Saw can be compared to David Fincher's Seven, as both tackle the same subject matter in a similar manner. In Saw two men awaken in a room, chained to pipes, with a corpse lying in a pool of blood in between them. As they try to work out how they got there they flashback to news about a serial killer (nicknamed Jigsaw) who is putting people in situations where they end up killing themselves. From barbed wire, to broken glass, the manner in which the killings take place are clever, well plotted, and very disturbing. Can the two men find a way to beat the killer at his own game and survive? Will the cop (Danny Glover, who is, to be honest, getting too old for this s**t) who has been trying to find the killer solve the mystery?
Comparisons to Seven go further than the tone of the film. The manner in which we, the audience, are given small pieces of information about killings, and are left to visualise the true horror ourselves are very reminiscent of Fincher's masterpiece. This time around we are given speeded up footage of events, but not enough to see the graphic detail. In addition the look of the film is similar to Seven, the lighting, the set design. In fact, had Morgan Freeman been in the Glover role it may very well have been a sequel. As it stands it is a similar film, and it works well.
Saw isn't a brilliant film, and it most certainly isn't the 'great horror' that everyone seems to be raving on about. Overall it is a good quality genre film which doesn't offer anything new to the table, but succeeds in doing what it set out to doentertain for couple of hours. If you want blood, guts, and gore as people hack themselves upgo elsewhere.