Saw

Outraged that Saw didn’t make the New York Times’ list of the 100 best films of the 21st century, I immediately went back to the beginning. I rewatched not only the short film that kickstarted the most successful body-horror franchise of all time, but also the documentary about its making (even though I could recite that story like the back of my hand—it’s every movie nerd’s dream come true). James Wan has since become one of the most successful figures in blockbuster horror (he straight up carried Osgood Perkins’ The Monkey with the sheer weight of Saw references), but his origin story is nothing short of beautiful. Fresh out of film school, he and Leigh Whannell set out to make something small—low-budget, gritty, and terrifying. Perfection, in other words. What began as an indie dream snowballed into a Hollywood juggernaut with a bigger cast, a bigger budget, and a massive audience. It’s astonishing how far the two of them have come, but to me they’ll always be those two Australian movie nerds with a dream: Wan to direct, Whannell to write and act. Their impact on horror—and the twist ending of Saw, which still stands as one of the greatest in the genre—absolutely earns the film a spot on the New York Times’ list.