Review: Saw (2004)

Saw

IMDB rate: 7,7

Genre: Survival, Serial Killer

Yesterday I decided to finally watch the first Saw movie again. I was planning on watching all of them this week, but I'm not sure if that's such a smart idea since the movies are terrible after the third one. So that's why I take it easy and just watch one when I want. Maybe that I watch the second one this evening, or tomorrow or something. Anyway, there will be a review of all the saw movies in a while.

This is by far the best Saw movie, at this point it's even more a thriller rather than a horror movie. The movie is brilliant and it was quite refreshing at that time. Unfortunately, it was too much of a success and then there were the six sequels...

The first two sequels were not even that bad, they were completely different, and it seemed to go the torture way rather than the survival way, but after that... the whole story is messed up, every part brings something new in it that interfere with everything that happened in the previous parts. I don't even know which parts I've seen after the third part, mainly because they were all the same and all very confusing. I will find out when I finished watching them all, but I guess the last movies will be a drag to watch.

Two men, Dr. Laurence Gordon and Adam, wake up at opposite sides of a dirty, disused bathroom, chained by their ankles to pipes. Between them lies a dead man loosely clutching a hand-held tape player and a handgun. Each finds a tape the perfect fit for the player in their back pocket. They play the tapes. One is threatened, the other isn't. But they have a task: One must kill the other by 6:00, or the wife and daughter of Dr. Gordon will die. They find hacksaws in a toilet, and try to cut the chains, but it doesn't work. They are the two newest victims of the Jigsaw Killer. In a flashback, we learn of Amanda, a girl who falls victim to the Jigsaw Killer. On her head is a mask, which is hooked into her lower jaw. There is a timer on it. Only one key will unlock it, and that key is in the digestive tract of her cell mate who lies paralyzed on the opposite side of the room. If she doesn't unlock the mask in time, her lower jaw will be ripped wide open. She survives, but her cell mate doesn't. Through a series of flashbacks, we learn of more victims, and of the nearly-succesful capture of the Jigsaw Killer, who doesn't actually kill his victims. Instead he finds ways to make them kill either themselves, or each other, and he thinks the entire 'game' out perfectly, with no way out. Or so it would seem.

This movie is absolutely brilliant. The actual story is only setting of in a bathroom, the rest you see is a flashback. There are also some short scenes where you see the kidnapper of Dr. Gordon's wife and daughter and you see what he does to them, but the main story is mainly in the bathroom. It's kinda awesome that you can make a movie that simple, and yet so good.

While the other Saw movies are mainly focusing on the torture, this movie has a really good build up story. It has many dialogue and actually there is not much happening until the very last few minutes. The scene where Dr. Gordon was forced to amputate his leg was simply brutal. It looked so real and he acted it so well. Adam's reaction to this was priceless. Unfortunately, a scene this good will never be reached again in any of the Saw movies. It's a shame they've kept trying it for so long, because it's impossible to out top this masterpiece.

This movie is not a typical scary movie. It has some gore and such in it, but it's not evolving around that. It has a few scary scenes in it though. For example, the scene where the kidnapper is crawling behind the car with the pig mask on, that image was more scary than everything else that will happen in this movie or the following Saw movies. A good jump scare was when Adam was bringing light in his room with the flash of his camera, and when the pig face mask suddenly showed up. Seriously, I don't scare easily, but when I saw this scene for the first time, my heart had jumped up so much that it felt like it was floating around in my head. 

The acting in this movie is very good. The most familiar actor is of course Danny Glover, and his part was not even the biggest in this movie. Nor does it need to be of course, since all the other actors were brilliant themselves as well. The only bothering actress was the little girl. She reminded me a lot of Dakota Fanning in War of the Worlds, that scene where she kept screaming. Well, the little girl in this movie didn't scream or anything, but she kept repeating herself, which was kinda annoying. 

The music in this movie fits it so well. It has that scary but mysterious tone to it. It became the typical Saw music, but in my opinion it does not fit the other movies that well, because there is not much mystery going on it.

I really recommend watching this movie, if you haven't seen it yet. But please don't bother watching the next ones if you thought this was 'too much' already. The first Saw movie is kinda comparable with Untraceable and Se7en. So if you like a good thriller, this movie is perfect. 

My personal rate: 8