Saw

“Congratulations. You are still alive. Most people are so ungrateful to be alive. But not you. Not anymore.”There’s not much to say about Saw that hasn’t been said already. It had a lot working against it, the budget was really small, the filmmakers weren’t allowed many takes, and the amount of time to film was short. Despite all the odds, they pulled it off. Saw became an instant hit, and a sequel was immediately greenlit. Influenced by films like Se7en, Saw at its core was a psychological thriller about a serial killer. It’s well constructed and keeps you invested from beginning to end, focussing mainly on mystery and tension more than outright scares or even gore. The majority of the film was two men in a bathroom trying to figure out what’s going on, with a very simplistic approach to the story. The traps are known in the Saw movies but most of them in Saw I are just shown in flashbacks. They can be gruesome but are shown briefly and are more believable than those in the sequels. It is a bloody movie, but it uses these moments effectively and doesn’t feel overly reliant on them. For a debut film, James Wan did succeed quite well despite all the problems that he and writer Leigh Whannell experienced when making this movie. Now it definitely has its issues. The acting is a mixed bag, it is quite dated, a lot of the dialogue and writing can be quite flawed. On the technical aspects too, the frantic editing was definitely done in a way to help deal with the restrictions they had. However many of its issues and rough edges adds a charm and distinct style to it, and considering everything, it’s impressive that the final movie was as good as it was. It also laid the groundwork for things that would feature in many of the sequels from the grimy and green look, the music video-esque fast paced editing, the overblown twists and the ending reveals (accompanied by an iconic score from Charlie Clouser). About two decades later it still remains an incredibly iconic and influential horror film that has paved the way for other horror movies, even beyond the torture porn genre. Overall, it’s an effective and well made horror thriller that deserves to be judged on its own merits rather than be lumped in with what at least most of the sequels are.