Saw

Rating: 7/10 (8 October 2016)

"Saw" is a smart, tense, psychological horror/thriller that nowadays, thanks to its awful sequels and the many imitators it spawned, is passed off as a cheap torture porn.
The first scene is an intriguing setup: A man wakes up in a grimy, dark bathroom, in the bath. He gets out and hears a deep voice speaking to him. The lights come on, it turns out someone else is in the room and he also has no idea what is happening. Also, there's a dead body in the center of the room. The mysteries unravel one by one mostly through a series of flashbacks. While this constant switching between time and place may seem like a jarring structure, the transitions between these scenes are handled very well by James Wan, the director. The cutting back and forth actually aids the film, since it leaves constant mystery and suspense throughout the entire film. Literally, the entire film.
The suspense and mystery of the film is mostly character based. Everyone in the film has a reason for where they are. These are not the usual clichÃ© horror film archetypes. First, the two men who are trapped together. Adam is a private eye who basically exposes people for money, and he's impatient and easily angered. Lawrence Gordon is a doctor, who cheats on his wife, but he isn't an entirely terrible person. He does love his daughter and it seems he wants to change. Then there's David Tapp, who becomes incredibly obsessed with this case, to the point of rushing into Jigsaw's hideout without a warrant and with his partner, Detective Sing, who is killed by Jigsaw, the murderer, during their ambush. Tapp then only falls more into obsession, driven by his guilt from the death of his partner. Then, of course, there is Jigsaw, who has severe cancer and is fed up seeing others who don't appreciate their lives, so he creates these elaborate torture scenarios which will make the victim appreciate their lives more if they escape. Of course, all of this is revealed slowly throughout the film, but that doesn't mean it was slow paced. There is constantly a new mystery to focus on in this film.
The cinematography has a gritty, grimy feel to it constantly that fits the depravity of the characters well. The quick editing increases the tension of many situations, such as when the detectives go into the abandoned mannequin factory to find Jigsaw, which is also a notable scene for incorporating the extent of Tapp's obsession into the moment when he decides to "see what Jigsaw does" rather than attempt to save the man who is about to be killed. Even in this intense moment, the film is able to develop the character. There are many other genuinely frightening sequences, such as when Adam goes looking for the man in his dark house with nothing but a camera flash, as well as the moment where Lawrence is kidnapped and the moments leading up to it. James Wan knows that in order for a moment to be truly scary, you must hint that there's something there, but not specify what. The fear of the unknown is infinitely scary than all the blood and guts you can imagine. Speaking of which, the film is actually much less gory than people make it out to be, and when there is gore, and don't get me wrong, there is some gruesome imagery, but it is not overdone to the point where it becomes ineffective. It will shock you every time because it is never shown in detail for more than a few seconds.
A very good horror/thriller that, judging by the end of this one, received many unjustified sequels.