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Classic Movie Review: 'Saw'

Original Saw sets tone for the best horror franchise going.

By Sean PatrickPublished 6 years ago 3 min read
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As part of a celebration of Halloween weekend, the Everyone is a Critic Movie Review podcast, which I co-host, will be doing a special bonus episode dedicated to the Saw franchise. We will discuss in-depth each of the Saw movies including the brand new Jigsaw, which opens Halloween weekend in theaters nationwide. With that in mind, I am also writing about each of the Saw movies for Horror.Media. Spoiler alert, I am a huge fan of all seven of the previous Saw movies and I am very much looking forward to the debut of Jigsaw. You can get our Saw Bonus episode and every episode of the Everyone is a Critic Movie Review Podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or anywhere podcasts are available.

One of the toughest jobs for a screenwriter is finding a unique premise. It seems that everything has been done. Many aspiring screenwriters have had that frustrating moment of having written 10 pages and then realizing everything you wrote sounds exactly like something you just saw, or remember seeing. Who knows how many times that happened to writer Leigh Whannell, but he got over it and found a very unique premise for his film debut Saw.

Whannell is the writer and also the star of Saw, playing Adam. After waking up underwater in a dirty bathtub, Adam finds that he is chained to a wall and he has no idea where he is. Adam is not alone, chained to the opposite wall is Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes) who has himself just awakened to this nightmare. They are not entirely alone, either, however; joining them is a corpse on the floor in between them, with a gun in one hand and a tape recorder in the other.

With no other option, both Adam and Dr. Gordon must piece together recent history before their abduction, in order to figure out why they are where they are. Both men know a little more than they let on but try to hold back what they can. Dr. Gordon reveals that he was a suspect in a series of murders by a guy nicknamed the Jigsaw killer. He was questioned by police detectives, played by Danny Glover and Ken Leung, about the murders. Each murder case involves an elaborate torture session where victims are given the option to kill themselves or face injury and/or death, or let someone else die. They are more complicated than that but I don't want to spoil it.

To reveal anymore is to give away too much of this cleverly written plot. There are subplots with the two cops, with Lawrence's family (Monica Potter plays Elwes' Wife), and a secret that Adam holds onto until late in the film. Writer Leigh Whannell and director James Wan construct a clever thriller with elements of classic serial killer movies like Seven and a mystery set like a Hitchcock thriller with pair of strangers locked in a life or death battle with unknown forces.

Unfortunately, the film can't maintain this tension the whole way through. Toward the end of Saw, the creators couldn't help tossing in a couple typical thriller moments that, though better motivated than most, the final 10 to 15 minutes contain moments at home in any other thriller. The ending, however, makes up for those typical touches with a couple of surprising twists that will have you twisting in your seat.

When it comes to movies in this modern era of assembly line plots and test screenings that turn interesting into mediocre, originality must be rewarded and Saw was/is for most of its run, very original. Cary Elwes and Leigh Whannell are compelling but it is the complicated murders that steal the show. The kills are a combination of inventive production design, suspense and a real sick, sadistic streak. This original set a perfect template for what has become the finest horror movie franchises in history.

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About the Creator

Sean Patrick

Hello, my name is Sean Patrick He/Him, and I am a film critic and podcast host for the I Hate Critics Movie Review Podcast I am a voting member of the Critics Choice Association, the group behind the annual Critics Choice Awards.

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