USA, 2004
Director: James Wan
Score: ***1/2

SAW begins with two men chained to pipes in a subterranean toilet. One is Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes) who is given till six p.m. to kill the other (played by Leigh Whannell who also co-wrote the script). If he fails to do so, his wife Alison (Monica Potter) and daughter (Makenzie Vega) will both be killed. It becomes apparent to Dr. Gordon that the killer is a psychopath called Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) who forces his victims to perform horrible tasks in order to stay alive. The only other victim (Shawnee Smith) that survived had to cut her soul mate’s stomach open with a knife to get the key to unlock the steel head casing timed to go off within minutes. The irony and brilliance of the scheme is that Jigsaw plans to have his victims, if they survive, recognize the value of life – a sort of incorrect means to a worthy end.

First time director James Wan displays his talent for good pacing and placement of props for his scares. The mannequins picked by Jigsaw are genuinely scarier than any seen in any recent horror film. The editing is crisp and varies from slow to fast motion within seconds to heighten the scares.  The scene of Jigsaw’s taunting of Dr. Gordon’s little daughter is also disturbing if one can imagine what this child might be going through during the filming. One must give credit to Wan and Whannell (trained together in the same school in Australia) for their uncompromising dedication to horror. They also understand how items like two way mirrors and glow-in-the dark paint can play well in enhancing a mystery. 

From the slitting of a throat, dunking of a hand in the ***censored*** of the toilet bowl to the sawing of ones own foot from its limb, this is one ripe horror flick ready for Halloween. The twist at the end is a bit difficult to swallow, but SAW has already delivered the goods well.

Review by Gilbert Seah.