I had avoided Saw for quite a while because in my head i had already formed an opinion of what it is about and how it would play out even before actually going to watch it. Whenever people talked about the franchise or i saw clips of it on short reels, the conversation usually revolved around the traps, how gory it is and all the horrible things that happen to the characters. So I assumed it was basically going to be another horror movie where the entire point was watching people suffer in creative ways. Then I finally watched the original Saw, and it was deeper than some horror film, trying to make people scared, it was actually psychological if not anything.
Saw, directed by James Wan and released in 2004, introduces us to two men who wake up chained inside a filthy abandoned bathroom. Dr. Lawrence Gordon and Adam don't know each other, they don't know how they got there and, most importantly, they don't know why they are there. They soon realise that they are part of a twisted game created by someone known as Jigsaw, a mysterious killer who puts his victims into situations designed to test how far they are willing to go to survive. I expected Saw to immediately become a sequence of gruesome traps, but instead the movie spends a lot of time building the mystery. Who is Jigsaw?, and i just love anything that has to do with mystery movies, like i want to guess who the culprit is, with the characters too. Like, why were these people chosen? What happened before Lawrence and Adam woke up? and what exactly is the connection between everything that's happening?
The story constantly gives you pieces of information as the story progresses, without giving you enough to completely understand what is going on. There are flashbacks, police investigations and little details that slowly begin to connect together. It almost feels like reading a mystery novel where somebody keeps tearing out pages before you can finish the chapter. The bathroom itself is almost a character. It is disgusting and claustrophobic, and the fact that most of the movie takes place in this one location makes the whole thing feel even more intense. I read the back story of how the movie was made and it wasn’t some big budget or big studio production and that made it all the better, just pure passion to make something incredible, and again what really impressed me was how much Saw relies on psychological horror.
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Yes, there are violent and disturbing moments, but the fear isn't only coming from what the characters are being asked to do. A huge part of the horror comes from anticipation. You know something terrible is probably coming, but you don't know exactly when or how. That waiting can sometimes be more uncomfortable than actually seeing what happens and then there is the main antagonist Jigsaw. I think it is safe to say that Jigsaw has become a legacy horror film character. What makes the character interesting is that he doesn't see himself as a typical murderer. He believes he is giving people a reason to appreciate their lives. Obviously, his methods are completely horrifying, but his twisted philosophy gives the story another layer. He isn't simply killing people randomly, their is a warped logic behind what he does, and the movie makes you think about that logic without asking you to agree with it.
I also loved how the film plays with the audience's assumptions. You spend so much time trying to figure out who the killer could be that you start looking at every suspicious character as a potential Jigsaw. The movie keeps encouraging you to investigate along with the characters, which makes the final reveal much much better and that ending, I genuinely did not see it coming. I won't go into the full details because if somebody hasn't watched Saw, I think the ending is something they should experience without somebody ruining it for them. One of the things I appreciate most about the first Saw is that its reputation actually works against it. Because the franchise became so famous for its traps and gore, somebody watching the original years later might assume that is all the movie has to offer but beyond that reputation is a surprisingly clever mystery thriller. What surprised me most is that I actually want to continue watching the series. I’ll watch the rest of the Saw movies and do reviews about them. If you are into the horror genre, then Saw is a must watch.
Rating: 75/100
