February 6, 2025

Saw (2004)

Saw Movie PosterI sat down the other night and watched Saw (2004). Now before you get all on my case about this movie review being 5 years too late let me give you a bit of background… I don’t watch nearly as many movies as I used to.  At least I don’t watch them right when they come out.  The wife and I haven’t seen a movie in the last 15 years that we both like so it’s very rare that we rent anything.  My kids are 2.5 and 9 months and I refuse to write movie reviews for The Wiggles and Dora the Explorer so I’m unfortunately way backed up on some pretty damn good flicks.

So… I’m a HUGE horror movie fan and have been for years and years.  I’d seen the hype for the Saw franchise for quite a while and just had never gotten around to watching it.  Finally I had some traveling coming up and decided I wanted to watch it so I ripped it to my iPod and watched this movie over a couple of days…. WOW.  It’s certainly not in the same vane as Michael Myers & Jason Voorhees “slash fests” but this is a downright GREAT horror movie.  I haven’t seen the rest of the franchise yet but I’m definitely going to put them on my list.

CAST: I actually didn’t realize until I started watching it what a great cast this was.

  • Cary Elwes – of The Princess Bride fame
  • Danny Glover – still getting “too old for this shit” from Lethal Weapon
  • Ken Leung – you’ll know him from Lost, X-Men: The Last Stand, Law & Order, Etc.
  • Michael Emerson – the great Ben from Lost

They all put in great performances in what I consider to be an often overlooked movie genre.  Whether you like them or not, horror movies are here to stay!

STORY: Two men wake up in a room with a dead body between them.  They don’t know how they got there, why they are there or what they are supposed to do.  What they do know is they are chained in the room with very little means of escape.  The killer “Jigsaw” informs them that there is in fact a way to escape, what needs to be done and what happens if the “rules” are not followed.  Horror movies are less about the story and more about the thrill factor and gore so I’ll leave this part of review at this:  The story of this flick could stand on its own merit.  Right up there with Se7en in terms of “oh shit” factor.

GORE/KILLS: Some very inventive kill scenes in this one.  It’s not all that gory in relation to some of the horror movies out there today but there’s definitely enough for the bloodthirsty out there.  This is definitely not your “hockey masked hack and slash” that has plagued the Friday the 13th franchise for so long.  (That said, I LOVE those movies 😉 )  Not since the Scream have I seen such a “smart” horror movie.  Very well done indeed.

Saw CONCLUSIONS

If you’re a horror movie fan this is a great flick.  You’ll have plenty of scares and a good amount of gore.  For a killer who doesn’t do all that much killing Jigsaw is a breath of fresh air.  I can’t WAIT to see the rest of this franchise!

Chewie

I've been a fan of horror and slasher movies for as long as I can remember. I consider the original Halloween to be the best horror movie of all time and my guilty pleasure horror flick would be The Exorcist III. You can find me on X at @406Northlane or TikTok @406Northlane where I'm sure I'll offend you at least once a day.

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