Saw (2004)

Uruguayan title
“The Game of Fear”

Directed by: James Wan

Written by: James Wan, Leigh Wennell

Starring: Leigh Wennell, Cary Elwes, Danny Glover

Running Time: 1 hour, 43 minutes

Rating: R

Pre-Conceived Notions: I’ve known about Saw for a really long time, since it came out when I was in college, and since I’m not really that interested in horror at all, I never actively sought it out. And then the first Saw sequel came out, and then the next one came out, and I’d hear about some of the really fucked up shit that would happen in these movies, and decided to nope myself out of ever watching any Saw movie ever. But I told my friend the other day that I hadn’t seen Saw, and she instantly said, “Oh my god!! You haven’t seen Saw?! I’m coming over with the DVD!” So… I guess I’m going to see Saw just so I can say I saw Saw. 

Also, I have a question about the title. Is it ‘Saw’ like the past tense of ‘see’? Or is it ‘Saw’ like the tool? I guess I will find out. 

Bit-O-Trivia from the IMDb page: “Casting director Amy Lippens chose her ex-husband in the role of Mark, the man who burns himself alive.” 

1 hour 43 minutes later…: For a ‘psychological thriller,’ this movie was not as bad as I was thinking it would be. It didn’t make me jump. Although some of the scenarios people had to go through were kind of messed up. Like the reverse bear trap? And then performing an exploratory on a guy while he’s alive to find the key in his stomach? Dude. That’s really messed up. And doing post movie research, I found out that that was Shawnee Smith, the girl who played the quirky airhead on Ted Danson’s post-Cheers comedy Becker! I never in a million years would have guessed that was her. 

But I like how the pace of the movie went along and you never really knew who was behind the curtain pulling the strings until the very end. I’m not going to do the spoiler thing, because there maybe someone who is even more sheltered than I am who hasn’t seen it yet, and if they knew the dead guy on the floor did it, well, they wouldn’t even need to watch the movie. So you’re not going to get a spoiler from me! No siree! 

I don’t know if it was because the shooting schedule was so tight, or what, but it seemed like every time Elwes was in a really intense scene, his English accent poked through a little bit. Whereas I never would have been able to tell the other dude was Australian. He was solid throughout the whole movie.

Final Thoughts: 5.5 out of 6 slices of pizza. It still kind of holds up for what it is, and it came out pretty good for a first-time writing/directing team. But I guess if you have the likes of Danny Glover and Cary Elwes tied to your project, it’s hard for it not to be a success.