One And Done

Rating: 6/10 (26 April 2017)

Well, it took me long enough, but I finally caught up with the 2004 hit "Saw," a film so influential that it practically jump-started a whole new subgenre in the horror field: torture porn. It was the first film in what is currently a seven-part franchise, but I don't know if I am interested in seeing any more, although I did find this first installment impressively well done and very, very intense. In it, two men (Cary Elwes and "Saw"'s screenwriter Leigh Whannell) awake in a dirty disused bathroom of sorts and find themselves chained to the walls. A dead body lies between them. Eventually, the two realize that they are the victims of the so-called Jigsaw serial killer, who doesn't actually kill his victims per se, but rather puts them into situations in which they are compelled to do monstrous things or kill themselves. Via multiple flashbacks, we learn the two men's backstories and learn of the police investigation into the Jigsaw killings. We get to see several of these killings, too. In one, a man is compelled to run through a razor-sharp maze or be locked in a room forever. In another, a woman has a reverse bear trap attached to her head, and to get it off, must knife through the stomach of a living man to get the key to release herself. In another, a man has his head clamped between two approaching drills. Pleasant stuff. The film is supremely well acted by its impressive cast. Danny Glover plays one of the cops on the case, one who grows a lot more unhinged than the cop character he played in the "Lethal Weapon" films; Monica Potter (future star of TV's "Parenthood") plays one of the victims; and two of the future stars of TV's "Lost" (Michael Emerson and Ken Leung) add fine support as well. Director James Wan does an incredible job of helming his film; hard to believe that this great-looking picture only cost around $1.2 million and was shot in only 18 days! In all, I heartily concur with reference book "DVD Delirium 3"'s assessment when it calls "Saw" "a stomach-knotting exercise in physical and mental anguish." Still, as I say, I'm not exactly eager to subject myself to even more unpleasantness in this series, which, from what I hear, gets a lot more gruesome than this initial installment. Weirdly enough, this was the second film that I watched last week, following "The Ruins," that features a man getting his leg sawed off, and if I never see a scene like this in a movie again, that will be fine by me. It's hardly the stuff of a Fred and Ginger film, but for some people, I suppose, that's entertainment....