Saw (2004)
Elwes, takes a photo with the President who was in office the last time he had top billing in a feature film.
Starring: |
Carey Elwes
|
Released By: |
Lions Gate |
Released In: |
2004 |
Rated: |
R |
Reviewed By: |
Adam Mast |
Grade: |
C+ |
Saw is, perhaps, one of the most buzzed about horror pictures of the year. Along with the likes of Haute Tension, Open Water and Shaun of the Dead, it has been talked up on several fan sites since it's debut at the Sundance Film Festival. Naturally, I was quite curious as I love the horror genre and was unable to see this one at Sundance. Lucky for me, Lions Gate threw a special screening of the picture for Comic-Con attendees.
As Saw opens, a man (Leigh Whannell) awakens submerged in a bathtub. As he bursts from the tub and desperately attempts to catch his breath, he finds that he is stranded in room of darkness. After a few moments, he realizes he is not alone. As the lights flicker on, he discovers that he is chained by his ankle, and stranded in a rather large, unkept restroom. On the other side of the bathroom is a chained Carey Elwes who has just barely regained consciousness himself. At the center of the restroom is a dead man laying face down in a puddle of blood with a gun in one hand and a tape recorder in the other. Before long, Whannell and Elwes find themselves in a sick game waged by a sadistic serial killer with true creativity on his side.
Saw starts off strong as we discover what the killer wants. The movie even becomes more terrifying when we see what this sadistic fiend is capable of through a series of horrific flashbacks that reveal the most twisted methods of death since John Doe's in David Fincher's brilliant Seven. For a while it looks as if Saw might breathe life into a seemingly dead genre (movies about serial killers have pretty much run their course).
Seriously, if you are the slightest bit squeamish, you are not going to want to see the ways in which this killer offs his victims.
Sadly, the movie sort of falls apart in the second half as it strives to shift suspicion from one suspect to the next. Is it the burnt out cop (played by an unispired Danny Glover) is it the good but flawed doctor (played by Carey Elwes) Is it the sleazy photographer (played by co-screenwriter Leigh Whannell) Or is it someone we may not have been introduced to yet
The whole movie unfolds in a jigsaw puzzle fashion and was quite obviously inspired by The Usual Suspects and the previously mentioned Seven.
Saw isn't without it's inspired moments. As I stated, the ways in which the killer has his earlier victims dispposed of, are quite terrifying, and the climax of the picture--in which the killer is revealed--is well shot (most notably, I liked the nifty little wink at The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), but it's also quite flawed, and I question how the killer was able to pull certain things off. Obviously, it's hard for me to go into this stuff, because I don't want to reveal the killer's identity, so you'll have to judge for yourself.
The soon to be released Haute Tension suffers from a ridiculous twist, but ultimately, I think it creeped me out more than this picture did. True, it was more by the numbers, but I found it scarier.
What I disliked most about Saw were the performances, most notably leads Elwes and Whannell. They just didn't sell it at all, and the final act evoked laughter from some of the audience I saw it with. Elwes' sense of panic and yearning to protect his family is overplayed. They say that acting is acting like your not acting. Elwes seemed like he was acting. Whannell tries, but his inexperience shows. In the end, I think stronger performances could have made all the difference in the world. You have to believe that these men are going through this, and it never felt real to me.
As for the title, it does have meaning, but I'll be damned if I'm going to spoil it in this review. I've lightened up a bit in my approach to writing this piece. When the movie was over, I wasn't impressed, but having since thought about it a bit, there are some terrifically terryfying sequences to be found in Saw. It's also well shot and edited. This movie has nothing on Open Water or Shaun of the Dead, but it does have it's moments.
On a final note, at press time, Saw had been slapped with an NC-17 rating which I don't understand at all. Yes it's grusome, but it's more than worthy of an R rating.
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