The First Great Franchise of the Twenty-First Century

Rating: 9/10 (21 February 2010)

Two seemingly unrelated people (Cary Elwes and Leigh Whinnell) wake up in a secluded, dingy bathroom, chained to the wall. With nothing but their wits, a few clues, and a hacksaw, they must figure out who put them in their predicament and how to get out. Well, assuming they're able to get out. For an added bonus, one of the men has a kidnapped family on the outside.
Falsely categorized as "torture porn" (the violence and gore here are more in line with "Seven" than "Hostel"), this film was the first smart horror film of the 2000s. Intelligent horror fans not only got the blood they wanted, but a clever villain and a mystery to solve. Later sequels would get more complicated than episodes of "Lost", and the series loses something as it goes (all franchises do), but this original stands as one of the modern greats. And, luckily, you can watch it without any of the sequels and it makes sense.
There has been an effort in recent years to academically analyze "Saw", injecting a false connotation on to the film. One scholarly article points to the "militarization" of Jigsaw in a post-9/11 world. Jigsaw, like the military, carries out violent acts, but has found ways to rationalize them with moral justifications (saving the worthy, letting the undeserving die). The author makes various other parallels about a "military" setting, mentioning IEDs and the industrial setting of Jigsaw's workshop. I find this to be largely silly, and not at all the creators' intention. I see a much more obvious line of progression from "Silence of the Lambs" to "Seven" to "Saw" with the advent of the brilliant, self-moralizing serial killer. Even Hitchcock's "Rope" offered a justification for murder, albeit a poor one. Terrorism or not, the horror film will go on.
You can make complaints, sure. But for young writers and directors, this was a blockbuster and deserved the massive success it got. As someone who pays close attention to a film's writing and plot, I was stunned. My only real concern is at the very end, when the key's location is revealed. I can't discuss this in a review, but let's just say I found that to be uncharacteristic and unfair of the killer.
If you haven't seen "Saw" yet, see it. And see the second film. After that, they start to go downhill. But the first two are quite good and must-see viewing for all horror fans.