One Of The Most Disturbing Films To Come Out In Recent Years

Rating: Null/10 (9 March 2005)

What sets SAW apart from the usual slew of horror films is that this one gets into your mind. It puts you into the situations themselves and makes you wonder what you would do yourself. And, of course, a steady pace of creepy images such as scary clowns and spine tingling figures does not help you feel any better that you are watching a scary film of this magnitude.
Cary Elwes plays Lawrence Gordon, a doctor who wakes up trapped and chained inside a rundown, cracking, dirty bathroom with a younger man named Adam, who is played by SAW's screenwriter, Leigh Whannell. A dead body lies between them. As soon as Gordon comes to, he receives clues from his captor, saying he must murder Adam before a certain time or his family will be murdered. Elwes acts well enough in this movie, although in some scenes he tended to over act, or try too hard in some of the more terrifying scenes. Some takes would come off as forced, like he was trying very hard to impress the crumbling walls just how wonderfully he can play the part of a scare But it's not the acting that makes SAW work.
What DOES work are the filming techniques and camera work. The film's picture is grainy, shot with hand-held cameras to give a more realistic feel to the film's dirty, claustrophobic set. Visual style is something that has not been seen since David Fincher's Se7en, with outrageously mind numbing images. This is a wonderfully filmed picture, with a great score to intensify the mood.
SAW is one of the most disturbing, scary, psychologically draining films I have seen in quite some time. Compared to the other horror films being chucked out by Hollywood these days, SAW is for sure a horror film that will be remembered for some time and is very much something I would recommend.
MJR