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77%
Overall Rating
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Ranked #324
...out of 15,334 movies
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Two strangers awaken in a room with no recollection of how they got there, and soon discover they're pawns in a deadly game perpetrated by a notorious serial killer.
--IMDb
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Review by Chad
Added: October 26, 2004
Our feature film spares no time at getting into the action and immediately starts out with Adam (Leigh Whannell) waking up in a dark room with no recollection of how he got here. As he starts to panic and scream due to his situation, he hears a voice telling him that screaming won't do any good. The man attached to the voice turns on the light and introduces himself as Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes). With the lights on, Adam can now see the magnitude of the situation he's in... they're both chained by the foot to pipes in an extremely dirty bathroom, and there's a corpse laying in a pool of blood on the ground between them with a gun in one hand and a tape player in the other. After discussing the situation amongst themselves for a bit, both guys find that they have a single cassette tape in their pockets with the words "Play Me" written on them. Adam manages to get the tape player out of the corpses hand and plays his tape. It criticizes him on how he's lived his life up until now, and that he's one pathetic man. Now, he can either find a way out of this room or die. Lawrence then plays his tape, which tells him that he must kill Adam by six o'clock or Lawrence's wife Diana (Makenzie Vega) and daughter Alison (Monica Potter) will be murdered. Meanwhile, detectives David Tapp (Danny Glover) and Steven Sing (Ken Leung) are working on tracking down a serial killer known as the Jigsaw Killer... but will they capture him in time?
I could sum this movie up with one word, and then leave the review at that... wow. But since you, the reader, came here to read my thoughts on the movie, I suppose I should come through with the goods. The first thing that I'd like to point out is that I watched the unrated cut of this movie, not the R-rated version that will be arriving in theaters this Friday. Therefore, I'm not sure which parts and how much will be cut out between the version I watched and the version movie-goers will see in their local theater. However, they would need to cut a good ten to twenty minutes to get this down to the Hollywood-norm in regards to graphic violence and imagery, and I really don't see how they could get away with cutting that much out. Comparing the running time on the version I watched and the version that will be in theaters, there's only a matter of a couple of minutes difference in the times, so I'd imagine that the end result will still be one brutal film. The methods of violence that the killer comes up with are beyond the level of insane that most are accustomed to, and more than a few are sure to make even the most hardened horror fan cringe upon witnessing them.
The storyline here flows in an interesting fashion, though it can be a bit hard to follow in the early stages of the movie. The main focus of the film is Adam and Lawrence and their situation, but the movie doesn't take place entirely in their location, either. Over time, both Adam and Lawrence have recollections of how they got to be where they are, and these flashbacks are intermingled with their attempts to figure out a way of getting themselves free. The movie also switches over to Detective Tapp on numerous occasions, and also gives him a couple of flashbacks of his own dealing with his involvement with the Jigsaw Killer case. With the rather large number of flashbacks going on during the movie, as well as the events that are actually happening to the characters, it sometimes gets a bit hard to follow as to what's actually going on in the current time frame, and what's merely a flashback to explain some things. Everything is revealed and makes sense in the end though, so this really isn't a problem. Speaking of that ending, holy wow... it easily ranks up there in the top three most shocking finales of all time. Unless you've had it spoiled for you ahead of time, I guarantee that you will not see it coming. Unlike other movies that attempt to end in this manner, the ending does make sense in the grand scheme of the movie and isn't there merely for the shock value, which makes things that much more effective. Couple all this praise with a rock-solid cast to play the events out (even Danny Glover pulls out a nice performance!), throw in a great soundtrack that's effective while not killing the mood of the movie, and you end up with one fantastic experience all the way through.
Overall, this movie is well worth the money and effort to go see it up on the big screen this Friday. I'm almost positive that if you're a fan of horror movies, thrillers, or just good old-fashioned serial killers, you will not leave that theater with any sort of disappointment in your mind. 10/10, easily.
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#1:
A FIRE INSIDE
- added 10/27/2004, 12:08 AM
Seeing it this weekend, i can't wait.
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#2:
cky2kendall
- added 10/27/2004, 05:07 PM
It reminds me of the game Manhunt, which was
amazing. I want to see this badly. Damn you 18
rating!
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#3:
Twiztid22ditziwt
- added 10/27/2004, 06:42 PM
this movie is amazing, the ending is crazy as
hell..I downloaded this movie on2 my computer, but
I cnt wait till it comes out in theatres because
its soooooooo damn good
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#4:
t3rm
- added 11/04/2004, 02:32 AM
Wow. It reminded me of Manhunt as well. That in
itself is a bit freaky.
This movie is
absolutely amazing. May simply be the best I've
seen in all of 04.
I can't wait for the DVD
release. I'm very glad to hear there was an
extended version, and I can't wait to see that
one, even if it only holds a few extra minutes of
content.
A+ of a film. And even that is
cutting it short.
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#5:
cky2kendall
- added 11/12/2004, 04:19 PM
I have now seen this film; wow. I agree with you
entirely about the ending. I had no idea that was
happening, and it just blew me away. I love the
way this film is pretty much over the line of
twisted, yet you want to see more. A genius movie
which you CANNOT miss!
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#6:
juggalotus
- added 11/12/2004, 05:38 PM
great movie. over all suspencce...100000 plot
twists..GREAT MOVIE...
another move
to chekc out if u liked this would be
Murder-Set-Pieces
you can find
the trailer at www.frightflix.com
Rated NC-17
(first american horror tog et
that rateing)
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#7:
Chad
- added 11/12/2004, 09:45 PM
There's been countless American horrors that were
rated NC-17.
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#8:
HeatoN
- added 11/27/2004, 12:25 AM
wow....thats what i said as i left the theater,
awesome movie, EVERYONE SHOULD SEE THIS....who
cares what the rating was?
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#9:
cky2kendall
- added 12/06/2004, 07:16 PM
People with dial-up?
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#10:
Damion Darkheart
- added 12/11/2004, 09:11 AM
The ending to this is just...wow
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#11:
Optimus Prime
- added 12/27/2004, 08:16 PM
I went to see this with a group of my friends.
They thought the ending was dumb. I haven't hung
out with them since. Losers.
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#12:
Symx
- added 02/04/2005, 06:42 PM
A friend of mine recommeded this movie to me, i
think im going to go rent it today. He also said
the ending was amazing
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#13:
KaOTiK
- added 02/08/2005, 09:04 AM
ending IS amazing, well worth renting.... no
buying, actually
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#14:
Tristan
- added 02/25/2005, 06:47 PM
I bought it the day it came out, after seeing it
in theaters. This is one of the best movies that I
have ever seen.
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#15:
Bluesummers
- added 03/07/2005, 03:21 AM
2004 had a deluge of shitty movies. THIS ISN'T ONE
OF THEM! This movie is genius. Your mind is messed
with from the moment it begins. Non-linear
storytelling is a hard thing to do, yet these guys
pull it off masterfully. Taking a hint from both
Reservoir Dogs and every Dario Argento film ever
made, and combining them perfectly, we have Saw.
Best movie last year, for sures. I did get a heavy
Se7en vibe from this thing...but that didn't ruin
it. The reverse bear trap scene was quite tense.
And the end...yeah, people will talk about the end
for years. To say it quite easily...you aren't
going to see it coming. I'm so friggin' glad
there's going to be a sequel!
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#16:
Deadwired2
- added 07/03/2005, 06:17 AM
This movie is horrible. Seriously one of the
worst movies I have ever seen. It had some of the
worst acting I had ever seen, and the storyline
may have been clever, but everything else was just
boring and ridiculously overhyped. If this movie
scared you or fucked with your mind, you have to
be extremely dull-witted.
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#17:
BuryMeAlive
- added 07/14/2005, 11:20 PM
A very good movie, even if it has a few flaws...
Worth getting.
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#18:
doney
- added 09/03/2005, 11:37 AM
i loved it, definately half way through i was
suspecting just about anyone in the cast of being
in on it....
i heard though, theres
gonna be a sequel, to me though thats gonna ruin
it coz i love the way it was left open the way it
was....
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#19:
Ginose
- added 09/07/2005, 02:55 PM
The ending jumped out of nowhere and kicked me in
the balls! This is a buyer, no doubt!
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#20:
bluemeanie
- added 10/18/2005, 09:54 PM
If this film is a 10/10, than I am an orange
elephant with pink cauliflower. "Saw" was so
cliched and such a rip-off -- you could tell it
wanted to be the new "Seven", but it made the
terrible mistake of wasting a fine actor like
Danny Glover and not cutting out Cary Elwes little
weird out at the end, which has to go down as one
of the worst acting jobs in the history of major
motion pictures. I admit -- I did not know the
killer was the body, but that was not enough to
make up for 90 minutes of absolute shit. 4/10.
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#21:
Crispy
- added 11/07/2005, 01:25 PM
I'm glad you felt compelled to spoil it for those
who havent seen it
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#22:
bluemeanie
- added 11/07/2005, 08:52 PM
If you haven't see it, you deserve to have it
spoiked for you.
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#23:
Poltergeist
- added 06/21/2006, 06:02 PM
Wow this guys a LLLLLITTLE gay.
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#24:
Dametria
- added 04/24/2007, 10:59 AM
I was obligated to see this movie. I work at a
haunted house and their PR departent wanted to
have the theatre full of "monsters" on opening
night so they gave us all tickets and t-shirts. I
must say tho, the movie totally kicked ass Weve
had a dedicated SAW room in our house every year
since...
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#25:
Nirrad
- added 09/27/2007, 09:39 PM
I liked this movie a lot. I was so excited to see
it, but never got a chance in theaters. But I
picked the DVD up first day. I loved the twists in
this movie so much, and the ending I did not see
coming. I honestly think the twist ending was
better than Mr. Twist, M. Night Shyamalan, twist
endings. Personal opinion remember. I give this a
nice 10/10
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#26:
Nirrad
- added 09/27/2007, 09:40 PM
P.S I also picked up the uncut version which comes
in a very nice case. I have yet to watch it, but
I'm pretty interested to see what was cut.
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#27:
Tristan
- added 09/27/2007, 09:45 PM
What a twist! Robot Chicken references rule. While
I loved the movie when it came out, it quickly
lost its appeal. Once you know the ending, it's
sort of a waste of time watching it again. Still
though, for a first time viewing, it's really a
great movie. 7/10
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#28:
danimigra
- added 03/15/2008, 06:04 PM
one of the best ones..!!! On my top 20 best
films.... the story... the picture...10/10,
easily.!
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#29:
I kick ass for the Lord!
- added 07/11/2008, 03:48 PM
I'm going to have to agree with bluemeanie on this
one. My wife and I watched this and couldn't stop
laughing. My God, Cary Elwes' performance was
soooo over the top I couldn't contain my laughter.
Worst performance ever, (until Billy Drago took a
steaming dookie on Imprint). Also, I thought the
ending was a bit telegraphed. Sorry folks, Saw is
crap.
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#30:
Lucid Dreams
- added 10/06/2010, 02:26 PM
This was alright, nothing truly special as
everyone seems to think of it. 7/10
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