Saw is an indepentend horror film directed by James Wann. It’s premiere was in 2004.It was the first installment in the franchise, there are seven Saw-films overall. Saw’s plot starts when two men wake up chained in a dilapitated bathroom, with no clue how they ended up in there. In the middle of the room lies a dead man who has shot himself in the head. These two men, doctor Lawrence Gordon(Cary Elwes) and Adam(Leigh Whannell) ,who is a photographer, are given instructions how to escape this trap via microcassette recorder. Lawrence must kill Adam before the time runs out or else his family will be murdered. Adam is told simply to escape the room. Elsewhere the police are trying to catch the man who sets up these ”games”, the jigsaw killer.

The start of the film creates a very interesting layout to it and keeps the viewer interested. The plot is very well written overall, it stays exciting for the entire movie, despite the fact that Saw has a slower tempo than it’s sequels. It tells bit by bit a little more from this ”jigsaw killer’s” other victims and deepens Lawrence’s and Adam’s characters by revealing things from their past and by telling more from their backround. But very big part of the film is located in that single room where these two man are chained in, and still it manages to stay entertainig. This partially explains the fact that Saw was shot only in 18 days, which is very fast for a feature film.

Altough Saw had only about 1 million dollar budget, it looks and sounds very good. All the gory effects that are seen in it look very beliavable and will definitenely cause shudder in the viewer. Speaking of gore, there is not that much of it in Saw compared to it’s sequels, it has been used only (at least mostly) when the progression of story requires it and it has been carried out with good taste. Also the movie has a psycolochigal aspect to it, for it’s theme is ”How much blood would you shed to stay alive?”. Saw also gets a big plus from an epic soundtrack which is very memorable, especially the song at the end.

The characters in Saw are well written and believable with their faults and personal problems. But the absolute star of the film is the jigsaw killer, who is not a generic superpowered horror movie killer, instead he is a 54-year-old cancer patient, with at least questionable ideology. He wants to ”cure” people and make them learn appreciate life through these lethal traps he refers to as ”games”. There is always a way to escape, but not without infilcting terrible damage and pain to yourself. Also Jigsaw is very intelligent and plans everything he does very carefully. The casting for the movie is well made, Cary Elwes and Leigh Whannell do their job very well. And there is no bad performance seen in the film from anyone. But again, Tobin Bell does an astonishing job as the Jigsaw, and I couldn’t come up with a better man for the role. You can see the passion he put into his character from his acting.

Saw made a big impression on me, and I’d recommend it to anyone who likes well made horror films. The movie’s ending is very suprising and will definitely give you goose bumps. I also liked Saw’s brilliant and very interesting plot, which made me want to watch the second movie instantly. It is hard to find anything negative to say about the film, Saw is one the most succesful horror movie franchises in this century and in my opinion not without a reason!