Gritty, claustrophobic fun

Rating: 9/10 (23 January 2005)

It's tough to find a good, low budget horror movie now-a-days. Back in the 80's, slasher flicks were fine for the population looking for a thrill. As long as you had a lunatic with a knife, it didn't matter if you didn't have a good plot or known actors. That doesn't work anymore, and SAW proves it by making a solid, well done, low budget film that brought in profits.
The setup is simple: Two men are placed in a large, nasty looking room, complete with a toilet that hasn't seen a brush in a few decades. They are both tied to their ankles with chains. It seems that the only way they are going to get out of this is to hack through their legs with a saw only strong enough to break skin and bone, but not steel chains. As they piece together the puzzle as to why they are there, we are given details about the serial killer behind all of this called Jigsaw. Both of them will be pitted against themselves and each other, all the way through the very surprising end. It's worthy of a Hitchcock type of twist. Yes, it's that good.
Leigh Whannell plays Adam, who is one of the men chained up. He wrote and produced the story together with James Wan, who also directed. As a first time effort for Wan, this is outstanding, so much so that the studios have approached the producers for a sequel.
About the only drawback is the Cary Elwes, who plays Dr. Lawrence Gordon. I do like him in most roles (mostly his sarcastic hero roles, like Robin Hood MIT, Princess Bride, and even Hot Shots!) but his performance here seems a bit out of place for him.
This is a low budget film, done for a little over a million. A shoestring by today's standard, and yet the production looks 10 times that amount. These types of independent films, and even some high budget films are bound to have some type of production flaw. Sure you can count some minor plot holes here and there, characters that are flawed beyond belief, and an unbelievable premise. But, when you consider life is several hundred times more brutal then anything you see in any horror film, just consider this a good escape from real life, even if it's an hour and 40 min. Stop thinking so much about reality, and enjoy.
9 out of 10