Saw (film)


Free Web Hosting with Website Builder
This article is about the 2004 horror film. For series information, see Saw (film series). For the video game based on the events of the film, see Saw (video game). For other uses, see Saw (disambiguation).
Saw

Saw film poster
Directed by James Wan
Produced by Gregg Hoffman
Oren Koules
Mark Burg
Written by James Wan
(uncredited)
Leigh Whannell
Starring Cary Elwes
Leigh Whannell
Danny Glover
Monica Potter
Michael Emerson
Tobin Bell
Music by Charlie Clouser
Cinematography David A. Armstrong
Editing by Kevin Greutet
Distributed by LGF
Release date(s) October 29, 2004
Running time 98 min.
Country  United States
Language English
Budget $1,200,000 (est.)
Followed by Saw II

Saw is the first installment of the Saw horror film series. Directed by James Wan and written by Wan and Leigh Whannell, Saw was filmed during only eighteen days of production. It was first shown at the Sundance Film Festival in early 2004 and saw international release later that year on October 29. Saw is essentially an expansion of Wan and Whannel's 2003 short film of the same name.

The film's story revolves around two men who are kidnapped and trapped locked in an industrial bathroom with a dead body between them and given instructions related to escaping. Meanwhile, police detectives investigate and attempt to apprehend the criminal responsible, the "Jigsaw Killer".

Originally rated NC-17 for strong, graphic violence, the film was slightly edited to achieve an R rating. The unrated version is available as the Saw: Uncut Edition, a DVD special edition that was released around the same time that Saw II was released theatrically.

Contents

Plot

Leigh Whannell as Adam Faulkner and Cary Elwes as Lawrence Gordon.

Photographer Adam Faulkner (Leigh Whannell) and Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes) awaken to find that they are chained by their ankles to pipes at opposite ends of a disused industrial bathroom. Between them is a corpse holding a revolver and a microcassette recorder. Lawrence and Adam each discover tapes in their pockets labeled "Play Me." From these tapes, Adam is told that he must escape the bathroom, while Lawrence is told that he must kill Adam before six o'clock, or else his wife and daughter will be killed and he will be left to die where he sits. Hacksaws are soon discovered; neither is sufficiently sharp to cut through their chains, and Adam breaks his and throws it away in agitated frustration. Lawrence realizes that the saws are not meant for the chains, but instead for their feet.

Lawrence determines that their captor is the Jigsaw Killer, so named due to his practice of cutting pieces of skin in the shape of a jigsaw puzzle piece from his victims. The name is a misnomer, says Lawrence, as he never directly murders anyone and his intentions are for his victims to survive with a better appreciation of life. A series of flashbacks of his previous victims is presented, including his only known survivor up to that point, a highly traumatized heroin addict named Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith). She believes that her experience in the test, in which she risked having her jaws ripped apart, has made her a better person in the end.

As Adam and Lawrence search for alternative escape routes, Zep Hindle (Michael Emerson) breaks into the Gordon house and captures Lawrence's wife, Alison (Monica Potter), and daughter, Diana (Makenzie Vega). A flashback reveals that Zep is an orderly at Lawrence's hospital who was present when he was talking with some students about an elderly patient, John Kramer, who had terminal brain cancer. While psychologically toying with Alison and Diana, Zep monitors Adam and Lawrence through video surveillance.

Simultaneously, the house is being observed by Detective David Tapp (Danny Glover). Tapp grew unhealthily obsessed with the Jigsaw case after hearing Amanda's testimony. He and his partner, Steven Sing (Ken Leung), illegally broke into a warehouse that turned out to be one of Jigsaw's lairs. In the lair, they saved a man from being killed by drills aimed at his head. Before they could secure Jigsaw's arrest, however, Sing was killed by a shotgun booby trap, and Jigsaw escaped after slashing Tapp's throat. Tapp was later dismissed from the police force and is now stalking Lawrence, convinced from planted evidence that he is the Jigsaw Killer.

Meanwhile, in the bathroom, Lawrence finds a cell phone that can only receive calls. He and Adam try to stage Adam's death, but a strong electric shock through the latter's ankle chain foils this plan. Following these events, Adam and Lawrence recall their abductions; they were both ambushed and knocked unconscious by a stranger wearing a gruesome pig mask. Lawrence receives a call from Alison, who warns him that Adam knows more than he is telling. Adam explains that he had been paid by Tapp to trail and photograph Lawrence and shows him a pile of pictures that he found with the hacksaws. Lawrence begins to berate Adam, but grows defensive when Adam shows Lawrence evidence that he has been cheating on his wife. The two begin arguing, but are distracted when Adam notices a picture of Zep in Lawrence's house. They deduce that Zep is their abductor. Just as this realization is made, however, Adam points out that it is six o'clock, the deadline.

Alison frees herself from Zep, and a struggle ensues. Gunshots are fired, attracting the attention of Tapp, who distracts Zep long enough for Alison and her daughter to flee. Zep shoots Tapp fatally and races to the sewers, intent on killing Lawrence, who is only aware of the sounds of gunfire and screaming. Desperate to help his family and unable to reach the phone after throwing it aside, he saws off his foot and shoots Adam with the corpse's revolver, using a bullet that had been enclosed with his tape. Zep enters the bathroom to kill Lawrence, but Adam springs up (having suffered a non-fatal wound) and beats Zep to death with a toilet tank cover. Lawrence slowly crawls away, promising to get help and return for Adam.

Adam searches Zep's body for a key, but finds another microcassette player instead. As the series theme "Hello Zepp" begins to play, Adam learns that Zep was only a pawn in Jigsaw's game, following rules laid down for him in order to get the antidote for a slow poison he had been given. The "corpse" in the middle of the floor slowly rises to its feet, peeling some bloody makeup from its face and revealing itself as John Kramer, the Jigsaw Killer. Adam reaches for Zep's dropped pistol, but Jigsaw stuns him with an electrical shock from a hidden remote control. He then flicks off the lights and shouts "Game over!" before slamming the door and sealing Adam in the bathroom. The movie then fades out to the sounds of Adam's screams.

Cast

Reception

Saw was a financial success. Shot on a meagre budget of about US$1.2 million, it earned over $55 million at the box office in the U.S. alone and $102,917,772 worldwide.[1] Critical responses were mixed. It earned a 46% rating from Rotten Tomatoes, and a 29% rating from the most esteemed professional critics, qualifying it as "rotten." Despite the mixed critical response, the movie attracted a strong following and spawned over 4 sequels.

Noted critic Roger Ebert called Saw "an efficiently made thriller" but "finally not quite worth the ordeal it puts us through."[2] Carla Meyer of The San Francisco Chronicle wrote that the film "[combined] B-movie acting with a twisted mind-set and visual tricks designed to camouflage cheap effects" and that it was "terrifying at some moments and insinuatingly creepy at many others".[3]

Impact

With the emergence of the torture porn genre in the 2000s, the Saw film series, along with similar films such as Hostel and The Devil's Rejects, is frequently singled out as an example of the prevalence of exploitative graphic violence and gore in horror films.[citation needed]

Saw occupies the third slot on Bravo's Even Scarier Movie Moments for the scene in which Lawrence cuts off his own foot.[4] This scene, Amanda's test and the razor wire maze scene were grouped among the scariest film scenes of all time on FilmSite.[5]

The movie was also added on Empire's The 500 Greatest Movies Of All Time list.

Soundtrack

Main article: Saw (soundtrack)

Megadeth's song "Die Dead Enough" was originally set to be featured in the movie,[6] but was not used for undisclosed reasons.[7]

Uncut Edition

The uncut edition of the film is approximately eight seconds longer than the theatrical version. The additional footage includes:

  • An extra closeup shot of the body on the floor, which shows the extent of the "gunshot wound" on the back of the head.
  • A few extra seconds of Paul crawling through the razor wire.
  • A few extra shots of Amanda sifting through the intestines and stomach of the unnamed man she kills.
  • An extra shot of Lawrence sawing into his foot, which shows more blood.

However, in addition to the new footage, the dialogue between Lawrence and Adam in the end, just before Lawrence leaves, has been shortened.

There is also an Easter egg on the uncut DVD titled "See Saw in 60," which consists of three jumpy and humorous one-minute condensed versions of the film. Two are presented using dolls with crude faces drawn on them; sound clips from the movie are used for one, high-pitched squeaky voices for the other. The third is made using actual footage from the movie and the squeaky voices. Similar Easter eggs were used on later uncut releases of the sequels.

Video game

Main article: Saw (video game)

A video game based on the film is in development by Brash Entertainment for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 consoles, as well as for Microsoft Windows. It has a tentative release date of October 2009.[8] Series producer Oren Koules has revealed that the characters featured in the video game will be voiced by the corresponding actors who portrayed them in film.[9] Charlie Clouser, who composed the music for the film, will reprise his role for the game's soundtrack, as well.[10]

See also

References

  1. ^ http://imdb.com/title/tt0387564/business Box Office revenue
  2. ^ [1]
  3. ^ http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/10/29/DDGRB9HIGS1.DTL&type=movies
  4. ^ PopSyndicate.com forums
  5. ^ Scariest Movie Moments and Scenes
  6. ^ Blabbermouth.net
  7. ^ Blabbermouth.net
  8. ^ "SAW" (in English). Gamestop.com. Retrieved on 2008-08-02.
  9. ^ "'Saw V' Films 3 Different Endings, 'Saw VI' Talk and Videogame Details!". Retrieved 2008-May 21.
  10. ^ Game Answering Unanswered Questions. Retrieved 2008-July 12.

External links

Wikiquote
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Saw (film)
v • d • e
Saw film series
Films
Saw • II • III • IV • V
Characters
Writers
Directors
Film soundtracks
Saw • II • III • IV • V
Other
v • d • e
Films directed by James Wan

Saw (2004) • Dead Silence (2007) • Death Sentence (2007)






Why are we here?
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
This page is cache of Wikipedia. History