There’s not a lot I can say about Saw that hasn’t already been said before, but it feels wrong not throwing my hat into the ring considering that Saw is the film that got me into horror as a genre. I must have been around twelve or thirteen years old, and I caught a late night showing of Saw on TV. I was not good with horror, gore, or blood, but my morbid curiosity got the better of me, I wanted to see what all the fuss was about, considering at that point I think the series had recently had its fifth or sixth film released. The rest is history, horror is now one of my favourite genres, and it’s all because of this film.
Photographer Adam (Leigh Whannell) and Dr. Gordon (Cary Elwes) awake in a grimy dilapidated bathroom, chained to the walls, with a dead body on the floor in between them. After playing tapes with their names on they realise they are the latest victims of Jigsaw, a killer who forces his victims to play twisted, life threatening games, to prove that they are worthy of the life they have. Together Adam and Dr. Gordon must reveal all to understand why they have been targeted and work together to try and escape with their lives.
Now that the original Saw franchise, with its numerous low quality sequels, has long since ended it’s easy to take for granted just how monumental the original Saw film was, not just for the horror genre, but Hollywood in general.
Fresh out of film school, James Wan and Leigh Whannell made a short film titled Saw. Lionsgate saw potential in what the duo had put together so they gave them a very small budget of just over a million dollars to turn that short film into a feature length project. When the finished product released in 2004 it went on to be one of the most profitable films ever made, grossing over one hundred times its budget at the box office. It was this monumental success that not only led to six sequels created back-to-back over the following six years, but also an industry wide shift to create low budget, high shock value films that would lure in young adult audiences. It allowed for films like Hostel, Paranormal Activity, and Cloverfield to be created, as well as for dozens of young fresh-faced filmmakers with big ideas to get picked up by big name studios to get their dream gigs.
Whilst it may not seem like it now, Saw was the breath of new life to the horror industry that had been needing for quite some time, and the industry moulded itself to cater for the thirst audiences had for more films like it.
Photographer Adam (Leigh Whannell) and Dr. Gordon (Cary Elwes) awake in a grimy dilapidated bathroom, chained to the walls, with a dead body on the floor in between them. After playing tapes with their names on they realise they are the latest victims of Jigsaw, a killer who forces his victims to play twisted, life threatening games, to prove that they are worthy of the life they have. Together Adam and Dr. Gordon must reveal all to understand why they have been targeted and work together to try and escape with their lives.
Now that the original Saw franchise, with its numerous low quality sequels, has long since ended it’s easy to take for granted just how monumental the original Saw film was, not just for the horror genre, but Hollywood in general.
Fresh out of film school, James Wan and Leigh Whannell made a short film titled Saw. Lionsgate saw potential in what the duo had put together so they gave them a very small budget of just over a million dollars to turn that short film into a feature length project. When the finished product released in 2004 it went on to be one of the most profitable films ever made, grossing over one hundred times its budget at the box office. It was this monumental success that not only led to six sequels created back-to-back over the following six years, but also an industry wide shift to create low budget, high shock value films that would lure in young adult audiences. It allowed for films like Hostel, Paranormal Activity, and Cloverfield to be created, as well as for dozens of young fresh-faced filmmakers with big ideas to get picked up by big name studios to get their dream gigs.
Whilst it may not seem like it now, Saw was the breath of new life to the horror industry that had been needing for quite some time, and the industry moulded itself to cater for the thirst audiences had for more films like it.
It’s difficult to look at the original Saw without also thinking about the sequel films, but it’s important to remember that the first film is actually radically different to its sequels in almost every single way. Whilst the core premise remained the same for each film in the series, with a group of strangers trapped in a room together filled with deadly traps, the sequels upped the gore and gratuitous violence, and also got progressively more swamped in the series convoluted storyline.
The original film meanwhile is considerably tamer than people seem to remember it being or think it would be. There’s almost no gore or graphic violence actually shown to the viewer, it’s all implied through a series of quick cut flashbacks that look more violent than they actually are. Of course, there’s still blood and a couple of gory moments, but they aren’t as bad as things you’d find in other horror films around the same time.
Saw is much more of a detective style mystery thriller akin to David Fancher’s ‘Seven’ than the torture porn sequels it would go on to spawn.
To get the obvious out of the way; yes the film is extremely low budget and you can usually very clearly see where corners were cut to get things to work with the budget they were given. It looks more like a low budget straight to DVD film than it does a full-blown theatrical film, mainly because that’s what it was intended to be until it got such a rousing reaction on the film festival circuit. The acting performances and dialogue are also very sub-par, even from industry veterans like Cary Elwes and Danny Glover. But the real magic that comes from the original Saw is not the performances or the story, it’s just how everything comes together so smoothly on such a low budget whilst also being helmed by two recent film school graduates.
The original film meanwhile is considerably tamer than people seem to remember it being or think it would be. There’s almost no gore or graphic violence actually shown to the viewer, it’s all implied through a series of quick cut flashbacks that look more violent than they actually are. Of course, there’s still blood and a couple of gory moments, but they aren’t as bad as things you’d find in other horror films around the same time.
Saw is much more of a detective style mystery thriller akin to David Fancher’s ‘Seven’ than the torture porn sequels it would go on to spawn.
To get the obvious out of the way; yes the film is extremely low budget and you can usually very clearly see where corners were cut to get things to work with the budget they were given. It looks more like a low budget straight to DVD film than it does a full-blown theatrical film, mainly because that’s what it was intended to be until it got such a rousing reaction on the film festival circuit. The acting performances and dialogue are also very sub-par, even from industry veterans like Cary Elwes and Danny Glover. But the real magic that comes from the original Saw is not the performances or the story, it’s just how everything comes together so smoothly on such a low budget whilst also being helmed by two recent film school graduates.
Saw is every film student and analysts wet dream, I implore you to try and find one who genuinely dislikes what the film achieves, irrespective of their opinion about its content or sequels. Wan and Whannell both went on to be very successful filmmakers following Saw and only returned to the series in supervisory roles for a handful of the sequels. Wan went on to direct many of the Insidious and The Conjuring films, as well as branching out of horror for major franchise work with films like Fast & Furious 7, and Aquaman. Whannell went on to be the writer and creator of the Insidious franchise, and more recently has branched out into directing with The Invisible Man which received widespread acclaim for pushing psychological horror to new places.
Saw was their first opportunity to flex their creative muscles in a full studio production. The way they managed to do so much with so little money was by anchoring the entire film around a conversation being had by two people in a room. Whilst there are certainly other actors and locations used, these all happen in flashback sequences told from the perspective of either Adam or Dr. Gordon, and it always stems from and returns to a conversation the two men are having about how they think they got into this mess in the first place.
This combined with some extremely inventive cinematography, fantastic set design, and great audio work all make Saw a technically outstanding film, despite being made on a budget that was around five to ten times smaller than other comparatively low budget films were being made on around the same time.
For a first-time viewer the twist ending is the real hook that seals the deal on just how enjoyable the film is. Even in subsequent viewings when you know what the film has in store for its final few minutes, it’s incredible to see how Wan and Whannell managed to pull it all off simply by using information the viewer had already been provided with. It pulls the rug out from under your feet in the best way possible, and though the series became known for its shock final act twists, none of the sequels ever managed to pull it off the same way as the first film did, to the point where the ending to the original Saw is still used as a template for how to pull of twist endings to this day.
Saw was their first opportunity to flex their creative muscles in a full studio production. The way they managed to do so much with so little money was by anchoring the entire film around a conversation being had by two people in a room. Whilst there are certainly other actors and locations used, these all happen in flashback sequences told from the perspective of either Adam or Dr. Gordon, and it always stems from and returns to a conversation the two men are having about how they think they got into this mess in the first place.
This combined with some extremely inventive cinematography, fantastic set design, and great audio work all make Saw a technically outstanding film, despite being made on a budget that was around five to ten times smaller than other comparatively low budget films were being made on around the same time.
For a first-time viewer the twist ending is the real hook that seals the deal on just how enjoyable the film is. Even in subsequent viewings when you know what the film has in store for its final few minutes, it’s incredible to see how Wan and Whannell managed to pull it all off simply by using information the viewer had already been provided with. It pulls the rug out from under your feet in the best way possible, and though the series became known for its shock final act twists, none of the sequels ever managed to pull it off the same way as the first film did, to the point where the ending to the original Saw is still used as a template for how to pull of twist endings to this day.
It's also worth mentioning that at the time of writing this review the 4K UHD Blu-Ray of Saw has been released and for the purposes of this review I watched both the 1080p Blu-Ray version of the film and the 4K version within a short time frame of each other, and the 4K transfer is incredible, and it even makes it feel like an entirely new film at times.
Most of the bathroom scenes in the original version were bathed in a blue hue, with true white never really being something that Saw reached. Now though the tiles and fluorescent lights are a clear white against the blue of Dr. Gordon's shirt. On top of this the film grain has been reduced, giving the darker scenes such as the one in Adam's apartment considerably more detail. Add to this the audio being given a significant revamp with Dolby Atmos support and the subtle sound cues have never been clearer, and the amount of depth the sound now has is incredible. It's honestly one of the best 4K conversions I've ever seen.
Whilst Saw may not be for everyone, it’s a film that has an outstanding level of attention and care put into crafting it for a film that was made on such a tiny budget. It created a legacy that for better or worse revitalised the entire horror genre, and even nearly twenty years later the series is still finding ways to try and keep itself fresh with the recent release of Spiral: From the Book of Saw.
Whilst the Saw series can certainly be underwhelming and crude at the best of times, the original film is an iconic horror film that every self-respecting cinephile or horror fan needs to see.
Most of the bathroom scenes in the original version were bathed in a blue hue, with true white never really being something that Saw reached. Now though the tiles and fluorescent lights are a clear white against the blue of Dr. Gordon's shirt. On top of this the film grain has been reduced, giving the darker scenes such as the one in Adam's apartment considerably more detail. Add to this the audio being given a significant revamp with Dolby Atmos support and the subtle sound cues have never been clearer, and the amount of depth the sound now has is incredible. It's honestly one of the best 4K conversions I've ever seen.
Whilst Saw may not be for everyone, it’s a film that has an outstanding level of attention and care put into crafting it for a film that was made on such a tiny budget. It created a legacy that for better or worse revitalised the entire horror genre, and even nearly twenty years later the series is still finding ways to try and keep itself fresh with the recent release of Spiral: From the Book of Saw.
Whilst the Saw series can certainly be underwhelming and crude at the best of times, the original film is an iconic horror film that every self-respecting cinephile or horror fan needs to see.