Saw (2004) - The Only Shock Horror Film with a Good Plot

The film Saw was originally released on January 19, 2004, by the production label Twisted Pictures. Only a few months later in October of the same year, Lionsgate bought the rights to the movie and released it in Canada and the United States. The film's reviews were mixed upon release, but none the less the movie gained a cult following, grossing $100 million worldwide at the box office. The movie begins in a shockingly disgusting bathroom with the main characters, Lawrence and Adam chained up to a metal pipe in opposite corners of the bathroom. Shortly after the movie starts the main characters find cassette tapes in their pockets. Adam's cassette tape urges Adam to escape the room while Lawrence's cassette tape demands that he kills Adam by 6 o'clock or his wife and daughter will be killed. As the movie progresses, major plot points are explained through each characters flashbacks. At the end of the movie, Lawerence is forced to cut his own foot off to escape the shackle and as he leaves, clearly about to die of blood loss, he tells Adam he will be back with help after he saves his family. Then, in one of my favorite plot twists in film, the "dead" guy in the middle of the bathroom is revealed to not only be alive, but he is actually the very man who put them in there in the first place. This man, named Jigsaw, then shuts the extremely heavy door to the bathroom in Adam's face while Adam screams for help. This film relies very heavily on its very low key lighting to create its mysterious and horrifying tone. A majority of the film is shot in the bathroom, where the lighting is very dim, and sometimes completely off. Even in the very few scenes outside of the bathroom, the lighting is very low key. The soundtrack, and sometimes the absence of, plays a very important role in the overall tone of the movie as well. It helps reinforce what the low key lighting has already established in many scenes, but most prominently when Lawerence goes insane and decides to cut off his foot to save his family.

This movie is one of my favorites for sure. The lo-fi visual and audio quality of the movie only adds to its intense feel. However, no movie is perfect and this is no exception. First off, the acting. It's extremely mediocre. Half the lines the characters say seem mechanical and rehearsed. The few special effects that the movie does have are very cheesy and in some cases, completely removed me from my immersion in the film. Although the acting may not be top quality and the special effects may be lackluster, I can forgive it. The film's budget was a mere 1.2 million and it was only given 18 days to film the entirety of the movie. That's INSANE considering most blockbuster films today have an average budget of ~100 million and take upwards of 60 days to film! The movie also makes up for its small budget and short filming schedule by having an incredible plot. The ending seems to come out of nowhere and the way the director almost exclusively uses flashbacks to tell each character's story is really well done. The film also avoids almost all of the typical horror movie tropes like dumb characters that make really obvious mistakes, seemingly infinite bullets in magazines, and cheap jump scares. The movie also includes a very large amount of foreshadowing in a way that you will only be able to pick up on when watching the film for the second time which adds to the rewatchability of the movie as the movie relies on the watcher not anticipating the ending. Overall I really enjoy this movie and what the movie lacks in acting skill and SFX it makes up for in an extremely creative plot. This movie gets a solid Good Good rating from me.