Saw (2004)

With a dead body lying between them, two men wake up in the secure lair of a serial killer who's been nicknamed "Jigsaw". The men must follow various rules and objectives if they wish to survive and win the deadly game set for them.

Director:

James Wan

Writers:

Leigh Whannell, James Wan (story),

Stars:

Leigh Whannell, Cary Elwes, Danny Glover

5 wins & 8 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Leigh Whannell	...	Adam Faulkner-Stanheight
Cary Elwes	...	Dr. Lawrence Gordon
Danny Glover	...	Detective David Tapp
Ken Leung	...	Detective Steven Sing
Dina Meyer	...	Kerry
Mike Butters	...	Paul
Paul Gutrecht	...	Mark
Michael Emerson	...	Zep Hindle
Benito Martinez	...	Brett
Shawnee Smith	...	Amanda
Makenzie Vega	...	Diana Gordon
Monica Potter	...	Alison Gordon
Ned Bellamy	...	Jeff
Alexandra Bokyun Chun	...	Carla (as Alexandra Chun)
Avner Garbi	...	Father

Storyline

Two men wake up at opposite sides of a dirty, disused bathroom, chained by their ankles to pipes. Between them lies a dead man loosely clutching a hand-held tape player and a handgun. Each finds a tape the perfect fit for the player in their back pocket. They play the tapes. One is threatened, the other isn't. But they have a task: One must kill the other by 6:00, or his wife and daughter will die. They find hacksaws in a toilet, and try to cut the chains, but it doesn't work. They are the two newest victims of the Jigsaw Killer. In a flashback, we learn of Amanda, a girl who falls victim to the Jigsaw Killer. On her head is a mask, which is hooked into her lower jaw. There is a timer on it. Only one key will unlock it, and that key is in the digestive tract of her cell mate who lies paralyzed on the opposite side of the room. If she doesn't unlock the mask in time, her lower jaw will be ripped wide open. She survives, but her cell mate doesn't. Through a series of flashbacks, we ...

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Plot Keywords:

killer | flashback | serial killer | toilet | chained | 

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Taglines:

Their saw isn't there to cut their chains, they are there to cut their feet.

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Genres:

Crime | Horror | Mystery

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated NC-17 for strong graphic violence

Details

Official Sites:

Official Fan Club

Country:

USA Australia

Language:

English

Release Date:

29 October 2004 (USA)

Also Known As:

Juego macabro

Filming Locations:

Lacy Street Production Center - 2630 Lacy Street, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$1,200,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$110,822 (South Africa) (1 April 2005)

Gross:

$172,993 (South Africa) (8 April 2005)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Evolution Entertainment, Saw Productions Inc., Twisted Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS DTS (5.1 surround)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The surveillance camera footage of Adam and Dr. Gordon was shot separately and spliced together during post production, which is the reason for the strange angle of the two characters in the footage.

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Goofs

After the first call Dr. Gordon gets on the cell phone, a boom mic shadow is visible on the bathroom door.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Adam: Help! Someone help me! Is someone there? Hey! Oh shit, I'm probably dead.

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Crazy Credits

The opening title ripples like it was underwater.

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Connections

Featured in Siskel & Ebert: Episode dated 30 October 2004 (2004)

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Soundtracks

"Hello Zepp"
(a.k.a. Final Theme)
Composed by Charlie Clouser
Performed by Charlie Clouser

User Reviews

The game begins

Not since Se7en's John Doe has there been a serial killer with such a bizarre philosophy behind his actions (not that Jigsaw actually kills anyone; more on that later). Sure, in light of the increasingly deteriorating sequels it's hard to think of Saw as little more than a franchise- starter (something the writer and director never planned), but viewed on its own, astonishing merits, it's a good, nasty thriller, filled with solid scares and (especially compared to the follow-ups) quite well written.

According to the film's notorious back-story, it took only 28 days to shoot it. Not that strange, given most of the action takes place in just two locations: one is a bathroom where Adam (Leigh Whannell) and Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes) fins themselves with their feet chained to the wall, with no recollection whatsoever of how the hell they got there; the other is the lair of the mysterious Jigsaw, a serial killer whom Detectives Sing (Ken Leung) and Trapp (Danny Glover) have been tracking down for weeks.

The two facts are linked in a most ingenious way: Jigsaw doesn't really kill anyone, but "plays a game" with his victims. In the case of Adam and Dr. Gordon, as the tape recorder found in a dead man's hand tells them, each of them has two hours to free himself and kill the other, or they will both die. Problem is, the only way to get rid of the chains is to saw your foot off. And so, while the two unfortunate cell-mates have to choose who gets to live (that's Jigsaw's perverse logic: he offers you a choice), the police close in on the elusive psycho, whose previous deeds and MO are shown in flashbacks.

Whereas the subsequent Saw films use the messy chronology just for the hell of it (though they do get away with some neat narrative tweaks thanks to it), the first installment takes advantage of its non-linear storytelling to increase the suspense and provide some valuable clues to how everything fits together. It is to James Wan and co-writer Whannell's eternal credit that they, like Se7en writer Andrew Kevin Walker, went beyond slasher clichés and came up with something more. Okay, so Saw's philosophical undertones aren't entirely original, but what the heck, they do manage to keep the audience interested in what's going on. In addition, adding a little more depth to the killer ensures that the movie's more gruesome parts (and there are a lot of them) don't come off as gratuitous bloodletting (for an example of the latter, look no further than the countless sequels to A Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday 13th).

Furthermore, the intelligence behind the film's structure might also have had a positive effect on the performances, given the acting is more convincing here than in most post-2000 shockers: Elwes and Whannell's desperation is conveyed with an intensity that's almost too painful to behold, Glover plays the aging cop role resisting the temptation to do a Lethal Weapon in-joke (you know, the "too old for this sh*t" gag) and when Jigsaw himself appears... well, it's the horror equivalent of Keyser Soze - chilling and impossible to forget (and, for once, not played by Kevin Spacey). Just like the movie.