Saw

SAW
2004 | Dir. James Wan | 103 Minutes

"Most people are so ungrateful to be alive. But not you. Not anymore."


Two strangers awake in a squalid bathroom, their ankles shackled to pipes. As the pair soon realizes their captor is the infamous Jigsaw Killer, they are forced to play a deadly game for survival.

The feature directorial debut of writer/director James Wan, co-written with and co-starring Wan's film school partner Leigh Whannell, Saw is a grungy, mostly poorly-acted thriller serving as a vehicle for a series of creatively gruesome horror set pieces. Impressively, Wan and Whannell establish a true cinematic horror icon that stands out in the crowded genre, a twisted mastermind who places selfish and malicious members of society in elaborate death traps intended to impart bloody life–affirming lessons. For what the film lacks in quality performances and technical polish, it compensates with a captivating premise built around a warped moral philosophy at its core. The feature also benefits greatly from its excellent twist ending.

Already benefiting from strong, if necessarily frugal, production design, the various death trap are serviceably intensify by editor Kevin Greutert's frantic cutting, best exemplified during the iconic reverse bear trap scene. Greutert's stylized editing also works to amplify Dr. Gordon and Adam's anxiety, though it does make the footage of Tapp and Zep behind the wheels of their cars late in the film look unintentionally hilarious, drawing unnecessary attention to the lack of camera coverage for what is ostensibly a car chase. The musical score by Charlie Clouser, formerly of Nine Inch Nails, is appropriately atmospheric, though it truly comes to life during the final sequence of the film, revealing the twist to a thunderous rendition of the picture's main theme.

Cary Elwes gives an uneven performance as the hapless Dr. Gordon, believably impatient and wary at the start but devolving into a total mess by the final act in which his American accent disappears entirely from the distraught physician's ranting and raving desperation. Leigh Whannell is humorously bad as the sleazy photographer Adam, though it's clear that he's having fun, the co-writer/co-star giving himself the most outrageous lines in the script. Perhaps the best actor in the film, Danny Glover is a good fit for the seasoned Detective Tapp, though his character actually becomes less interesting after he goes off the rails. As the red herring, Michael Emerson is convincingly creepy in the role of Zep, his eyes incredibly intense. Though she doesn't have much screen time, Shawnee Smith stands out as the reverse bear trap survivor Amanda, really selling the fear while wearing the contraption, and the eerie calm of Jigsaw's questionable brand of enlightenment after the ordeal. Saw also features Ken Leung doing solid work as Tapp's tenacious partner Sing, Makenzie Vega as Dr. Gordon's weary wife Diana, Dina Meyer in a very minor part as police officer Kerry, and Tobin Bell who steals the show when he is revealed to be Jigsaw posing as a dead body lying on the bathroom floor the entire time.

A low budget gory horror flick with more than its fair share of ingenuity, Saw is a flawed picture with a captivating premise and an instantly iconic cinematic boogeyman. The grisly traps are rather imaginative, and while some of the dialogue and acting is laughably bad, as a whole it's not without its charm. The mind-blowing twist accompanied by appropriately sweeping theme music does wonders for the overall quality of the feature.


BEST TRAP
The reverse bear trap will remain one of the most memorable visuals in horror movie history. The rules of the game are easy to understand, and it helps a bit that Amanda ultimately survived the trap, demonstrating that it's possible to win Jigsaw's games in theory.


FRAGMENTS
- Straight out of film school, Wan and Whannell went to great lengths to get this project off the ground, including shooting the reverse bear trap sequence from an early version of the script as a short film in order to pitch the screenplay to studios

- Principal photography only lasted 18 days, and Wan quickly realized he did not film enough coverage during the editing process, forcing him and Greutert to get creative

- To promote the release of the film, distributor Lionsgate held a blood drive for the Red Cross, which became an annual tradition for the series coinciding with the release of subsequent sequels for six consecutive years

- I have fond memories of attending an early screening of this at The Brattle as part of the Boston Fantastic Film Festival in 2004

- I've always admired the gnarly Twisted Pictures studio logo

- Michael Emerson and Ken Leung would later appear on ABC's hit sci-fi adventure series Lost

- In hindsight, this one is relatively quaint compared to how wild and convoluted things get as the series progresses

- After laying the groundwork for the Saw franchise, James Wan went on to create other wildly successful horror franchises Insidious and The Conjuring, while also directing massive crowd-pleasing blockbusters Furious 7 and Aquaman

- Leigh Whannell went on to write and direct the unremarkable third Insidious film, the entertaining sci-fi thriller Upgrade, and the phenomenal updated take on The Invisible Man released in 2020


SUPPLEMENTAL STUFF


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