The horror genre is reborn...

Rating: 8/10 (18 January 2006)

It's hard to come up with a realistic horror movie. Ever since the infamous Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, movie makers have struggled to balance reality with horror. Many have failed. Saw comes along as a bloody thriller that actually succeeds as a horror movie. This makes it a rare gem among its peers, if there were any.
The movie starts off in a small, abandoned bathroom where two men are trapped with their legs in chains, namely Adam (Leigh Whannel) and Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes). A dead man shot in the head lies between them, and all they could salvage from their hopeless attempt to escape are a small recording and an even smaller key. From then onwards, the movie builds upon flashbacks, with our doomed heroins sharing memories and trying to figure out what the hell is going on.
The movie has some flaws, like some overreacting and a slow pace, but the whole experience is truly an art in itself, and should appeal to horror/thriller fans everywhere.