An industrial-grade disappointment

Rating: 4/10 (1 November 2004)

The marketing teams behind the ad campaign for this film are to be commended, and I hope they received a raise. They took an extremely silly and nonsensical film, and made it look like the horror event of the year. This act of alchemy, while deceiving and underhanded, shows world-class talent that the film-makers themselves sadly lack.
Simply, "Saw" is a mess. It starts with one of the most promising concepts we've seen in many a year; a serial killer who never actually kills anyone, but engineers situations in which the victim or victims kill themselves/each other. It's unfortunate that this movie has laid claim to the subject, because a truly great movie could have been made of it.
The writers are clearly great fans of Dario Argento (the jaw trap was particularly evocative of Italian horror), but they are obviously much more infatuated with "Seven". This film is edited and art-directed to within an inch of its life, leaving us with something more like a Metallica music video than a thriller. The other serious issue lies with the plotting; the film is packed with flashbacks that illuminate very little, and serve only to confuse the actual timeline of events. The final moments are rife with revelations that are apparently intended to be chilling and significant, but instead elicit a series of "so whats". "Oh, it's that guy". "Oh look, it's that other guy". There isn't half enough set-up to these moments to really merit the reaction the creators want.
Rent some Argento. Watch "Seven" again. Or better yet, take this basic idea and write your own movie. Unless your name is Dean Devlin, it will make more sense than this, I guarantee it.