Genre: Crime, Mystery, Thriller, Horror, Detectives, Murder, Serial Killer, Police, Doctor, Psychos, Infidelity, Gore, Marriage, Drugs, Urban, Disturbing, Hostage
Tagline: Every piece has a puzzle.
Plot: A young man named Adam (LEIGH WHANNELL) wakes to find himself chained to a rusty pipe inside a decrepit subterranean chamber. Chained to the opposite side of the room is another bewildered captive, Dr. Lawrence Gordon (CARY ELWES). Between them is a dead man lying in a pool of blood, holding a .38 in his hand. Neither man knows why he has been abducted; but instructions left on a microcassette, order Dr. Gordon to kill Adam within eight hours. If he fails to do so, then both men will die, and Dr. Gordon’s wife, Alison (MONICA POTTER), and his daughter will be killed. Recalling a recent murder investigation by a police detective named Tapp (DANNY GLOVER), Dr. Gordon realizes he and Adam are the next victims of a psychopathic genius known only as “Jigsaw.” With only a few hours left to spare, they must unravel the elaborate puzzle of their fate in the midst of mounting terror. The killer has provided them with only a few clues and two handsaws – too weak to break their steel shackles, but strong enough to cut through flesh and
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 Saw is the kind of gratifying experience that you want to have with an audience so you can hear the screams, sense the dread and delight in the looks your friends give you that read “did I just see what I thought I saw?” Yes, you did. Although you may not have seen everything until it’s all over...and then you’ll want to go back and see it again.  --Erik Childress (eFilmCritic.com)
As long as it's dreaming up diabolical challenges, ''Saw'' displays a certain steely nerve. But the movie is seriously undermined by the half-baked, formulaic detective story in which the horror is framed.--Stephen Holden (The New York Times)
With its freshness and energy, Saw bucks the horror trend towards formula story-telling and proves that enough qualities in the "plus column" can overcome a weak ending.  --James Berardinelli (ReelViews)
This film's highest priority is the blood and the sawing of leg bones; as for teasing the viewer's brain, that's lower on the list.--Desson Thomson (Washington Post)
Director James Wan plays with his dark tone and unnerving camera tricks, which blend perfectly with the extreme torture in Whannell's screenplay. B--Craig Younkin (Lee's Movie Info)
It tries hard, it works overtime, and at times, you can see quite clearly where it wants to go. But its limitations prove too cumbersome, and though occasionally frightening, it never musters the juice to clear its hurdles. Saw shows all the ambitions ofa great thriller -- give Wan and his crew some time and they'll probably make one -- but right now, ambition alone just isn't enough. C--Rob Vaux (Flipsidemovies.com)
This isn’t as mind blowing as I had hoped, and, well, Se7en, but this is an awfully solid thriller that horror fans will love and the average thriller fan should dig on as well. 7/10--'The Grim Ringler' (JackassCritics.com)
“Saw” is a very entertaining, edge-of-the-seat thriller. Occasionally the performances are uneven, but in summary the movie seems rather brilliant, and a sign of great things to come from director Wan.  --John Ulmer (Movie-Gurus.com)
Akin to other contemporary films that depend on gimmicks like sinuous storytelling and surprise endings, Saw may not stand up on repeat viewings. At the end of the day it's just a flashy story peppered with stylish characters born in an era where film audiences are craving real sustenance. It's pretty good for a Bryan Singer or a Christopher Nolan. But a Brian De Palma it's not.  --Lucas Stensland (CultureDose.net)
Saw is a movie made by people hoping the moviegoers will be dimwitted enough to be tricked by its blatant manipulative structure. The movie has a few memorable devices, but aside from that and a great opening, Saw is a film that displays lots of blood onscreen but obviously has very little pumping through its own veins.  --Lee Chase IV (CultureDose.net)
Saw barely makes up for all these annoying problems with a clever ending; one that solely transforms the movie from silly cliche into a uniquely intelligent movie. The ending is clever enough to stand above some of the better surprise endings in recent film history, including the entire filmography of M. Night Shyamalan. 6/10--Aaron West (Movie-Vault.com)
Some of the film is truly thrilling, but by and large it’s the usual dude-in-a-closet kind of scares, relying on a captured child and wife to manufacture suspense.  --Christopher Null (FilmCritic.com)
Saw is a true wonder as instead of being a simple horror film, it is a deeply complex and disturbing film that showcases two talented individuals in a very impressive debut. --Gareth Von Kallenbach (MovieWeb)
 Julie Benz Joins "Saw V"
Julie Benz (TV's "Dexter," "Angel", "Rambo") will star in Lionsgate and Twisted Pictures' "Saw V" reports Dark Horizons.
Wednesday, Mar 26, 2008 | |
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| Cast |
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 | Danny Glover
The Royal Tenenbaums, Lethal Weapon, Lethal Weapon 4 |
 | Ken Leung
Artificial Intelligence: AI, Red Dragon, Rush Hour |
 | Dina Meyer
Starship Troopers, Saw II, Star Trek: Nemesis |
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But then SAW redeems itself with a final twist that is so supremely unexpected as to elicit gasps, also of the first order, as it then proceeds to close the curtain with an ending that will haunt you forever  --Andrea Chase (Killer Movie Reviews)
Wan's direction is confident and even, surprisingly so for a first-time filmmaker. The pace is quick, the editing is sharp. It is a slick production, to be sure, and it works itself up to a whirling grand guignol of a finale that caused me and many around me to nearly soil our pants in surprise. B+--Eric D. Snider (EricDSnider.com)
SAW still managed to crank me into its vice, knock me over the head with its fascinating mystery and ultimately provide me with an all-around snuff-like atmosphere, complete with dreary sets, creepy characters and human torture disguised as entertainment. 8/10--'JoBlo' (JoBlo.com)
Complex, tricksy, gruesome and thoroughly entertaining, SAW is like Cube meets Seven and bodes well for the future of its writer-director team.  --Matthew Turner (ViewLondon)
"Saw" has a few perversely scary moments, mostly involving ingenious ways in which the psycho has killed before. But there aren't enough to carry a 100-minute film — and the trick denouement makes the already-incomprehensible plot even more ludicrious.  --V.A. Musetto (New York Post)
Behind the incessant gore and outrageous shock value of Saw, there lies a great idea for a movie. The conception of Saw, a grisly and jolting horror film of superior intelligence and primal energy, is evidence of the filmmakers' startling understanding of fear.  --Jack Moore (The Movie Insider)
'Saw' combines the claustrophobic puzzle-solving of Vincenzo Natali's 'Cube' with the dark morality of David Fincher's Se7en, but perhaps the greatest influence on its surreal grand guignol and its masked killer is Italy's grand master of the giallo genre, Dario Argento. 8/10--Anton Bitel (Movie Gazette)
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