Saw (2004) Movie Information:

Saw (2004) Directed by: James Wan Saw (2004) Written by: Leigh Whannell Saw (2004) Cast: Tobin Bell, Cary Elwes, Danny Glover, Ken Leung, Dina Meyer, Monica Potter, Shawnee Smith, Leigh Whannell

Saw (2004) U.S. Distributor: Lions Gate Films Saw (2004) U.K. Distributor: Not available at this time

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Saw (2004) Synopsis:

Obsessed with teaching his victims the value of life, a deranged, sadistic serial killer is abducting morally wayward people and forcing them to play horrific games for their own survival. Faced with impossible choices, each victim must struggle to win back his/her life, or else die trying... A young man named Adam (Whannell) wakes to find himself chained to a rusty pipe inside a decrepit subterranean chamber. Chained to the opposite side of the room is another bewildered captive, Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Elwes). Between them is a dead man lying in a pool of blood, holding a .38 in his hand. Neither man knows why he has been abducted; but instructions left on a microcassette, order Dr. Gordon to kill Adam within eight hours. If he fails to do so, then both men will die, and Dr. Gordon's wife, Alison (Potter), and his daughter will be killed. Recalling a recent murder investigation by a police detective named Tapp (Glover), Dr. Gordon realizes he and Adam are the next victims of a psychopathic genius known only as "Jigsaw." With only a few hours left to spare, they must unravel the elaborate puzzle of their fate in the midst of mounting terror. The killer has provided them with only a few clues and two handsaws – too weak to break their steel shackles, but strong enough to cut through flesh and bone...

Saw (2004) Movie Review:

One of the most fiendishly inventive thrillers in ages, this disturbing and violent movie gleefully plays with our minds as it twists and turns through its tricky, menacing plot.

When Adam and Larry (Whannell and Elwes) wake up chained to pipes on opposite walls of a gruesome public toilet, they have no idea how they got there or why anyone would do this to them. But as they examine clues in the room (including a body in a pool of blood between them!), they begin to piece together what's happening. And flashbacks tell us more about the sadist who planned this "game" for them, as well as the cops (Glover and Leung) investigating a series of gruesome deaths.

There are echoes of both Cube (a life-or-death game) and Seven (horrifically imaginative murders), and the film also adopts Seven's grimy look as it slowly gives us the puzzle pieces that fill in the story. And as one ghastly truth after another is revealed, the film really grabs hold of us. It helps that the entire thing is firmly based on the characters, all of whom are seriously flawed people. Writer Whannell is very good as the hapless, secretive Adam; and Elwes plays nicely against type as the seemingly straight-arrow doctor who has plenty of secrets of his own, as well as a wife and daughter (Potter and Vega) in danger back home. There's a clever dynamic between these two men who don't trust each other at all, but really need to.

Meanwhile, Wan cranks up the direction to almost unbearable levels. There is a lot of grisliness on screen and yet he knows that keeping some things out of view makes them even worse! The murder-game scenarios are so revoltingly awful that they'd be unbearable if it weren't for a stream of black wit running through the whole film, not to mention the script's striking inventiveness. There are several moments in which we simply cannot believe that a filmmaker would take us to this point. Then Wan and Whannell push us even further. And in the process create a thriller that's truly a classic.

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Saw (2004) review written by: Rich Cline