Saw

[Raven]

So far i have avoided watching this film as the trailers i saw made me think of Texas Chainsaw Massacre. And because i dont like TCM films it put me off going to see SAW but out of curiousity what is like? or even more important whats it about?

[Supercool]

This is from the UGC Cinema website....


SYNOPSIS
A doctor and a writer wake up chained to the wall in a filthy bathroom with a corpse between them. The body has a gun in one hand, a tape recorder in the other. From the recording, the two men learn that they are players in a demented game and have eight hours to kill each other. Realising that they are the captives of a sick and twisted serial killer nicknamed 'Jigsaw', the men only have a few hours to unravel the elaborate puzzle of their fate before they become his next victims.

Great premise, but I personally (my friends loved it) didn't think it pulled it off.


Here's the (slightly edited) post I made on another site after watching it (not the best at getting my point accross, and a bit crude, but all the same)...

"BAG OF WANK" was the mantra going on in my head while watching it. And the only reaction it really got from me was laughs... and not planned ones (well, ok, except for that one part which was planned, and pretty damn hillarious!).

One of the main obstacles is the horrid overuse of "crazy" sped-up camera work. It's obnoxious. The prominant example for me was where the camera revolves around a character while some crappy 'heavy' music plays, (while I can see that it seemed like a good way of presenting it, it doesn't work, and) it reminded me of a scene from Brass Eyes infamous Peadophile special, it was farcical. Which ruined a scene which could have been an awesome piece of psycho-horror. And the same can be said of so much more of the film. There was such potential, but it justs dissapoints at every turn.

For the most part, the story was played out, and by the numbers. Obvaously the main idea is cool, and orginal, but only a small amount of it comes off as living up to this, and for the most part you can just see that they're piling up the pins to be knocked down for the conclusion (the main part of which is rather fucking awesome). The bad guy becomes theatrical, and even when it sticks to the main focal point, it's a let down without any of the atmosphere you'd have expected. And believe me, I can forgive bad acting - not saying this is particularly bad (although as the review at nixflix says 'the doctor seems more inconvienienced than anything') - but even if they were the best actors in the world it wouldn't have worked any better.

I will admit that the ending did have it's merits. And a certain reveal did make me want to pretend that the whole film had been awesome. But even then, most of the climax was shitty.

It's also a bit annoying that without any real atmosphere, the gore level isn't too high. Yes, there's some bodies and whatnot, but nothing shocking. And the scares are very tame, whereas if it had of provided what it need to, it could have provided some truly chilling psychological horrors.

There's so many bits where you just think "that could have been so cool" or "oh man, this is going to be cool..." only for it to fall flat on it's face or just plain not deliver the goods. Though there's 2 very good, stand out scenes, of the previous victims of the 'jigsaw' killer.

At the end of the day, I hope that the remake system isn't a one-way street, and that this is picked up in another country and remade for the great movie it could have been. Or that the potential sequel is an improvement.



I didn't feel like it was money wasted. It wasn't good, but if you've got the money, then it's worth checking it out at the cinema (infact, if you're a horror fan, then I'd phrase that as 'I urge you to go see it' because some people like it, and even though I didn't there is some cool stuff going on). Even if it's a bad product, it's got some promising stuff in there.

I'll be downloading it sometime, and maybe my opinion will change on second viewing, but as it stands... "bag of wank". All the same, go see it.

[shadow]

I havent seen it yet ( I will wait for the dvd release)...but to me...this movie is way overrated. BUT only time will tell. :wacko:

[UnHoLy]

Doesn't get released until Halloween, then i'll share my thoughts.

[42nd Street Freak]

"Saw" - Very good. Raging, Violent, bloody, dark and with some spot on twists. It did the business as far as i was concerned.
And i for one am the biggest critic you wiill find of 'modern' horror films..the genre has been mortally wounded (the odd title aside of course) since the mid 80's imho....But i enjoyed this.

[Johnny Alucard]

Went to cinema and SAW (argggh!) this last week. Had great expectations after reading alot of rave reviews...

Turned out to be a big anti climax. The bloke who plays the doctor can't act to save his life! Was also expecting alot more gore, but found it rather tame. The twist at the end is pretty cool though. :spike: