For those who don't know about it by now it is the low budget film by James Wan. Set primarily in a bathroom type place.

For what it is I think it's pretty good coming from the big budget disasters from the year that was, not to compare it though. I though they did the best they could with what they had and it shows promise.

Not the best film ever made by a long stretch but at least it's watchable.

The story of 2 seemingly random men who wake up chained across from each other, we soon find out the whole backstore and everything goes to hell fast.

I'm not going to give away the film or anything because spoiling it ruins it for people.

There is a  reason I wanted to do this semi review type, if Syco wants to add his own full length review  later I'd be happy to read it because his reviews are funny and i think he probably hated this film like most will.

it comes with a extra dvd with a scene from Devil's Rejects (Rob Zombies sequel) and another film called High Tension a teaser scene from both but i have no clue and can't find any info on this high tension film accept an older film.

The extra features are bad, nothing at all to show they even tried to give us anything special.

So with that said

Saw DVD: 2 out of 5 but the film itself and the commentary get a rising 4 out of 5 because the commentary is cool if you like drinking games and learning how a screenwriter and low budget film works

Bonus Disc: 3 out of 5 because it's only 2 teaser exclusive scenes

While I, as a whole, really like this film... I didn't think it was as brilliant as some say.  I knew right off the bat that the man in the room wasn't dead and that he was holding the major key to the bigger picture.  They just focused on him too much, maybe I've seen too many of these kinds of movies, but it was quickly revealed to me what the situation was... I think when they tried throwing you off with Danny Glover being the killer and then the other guy, that's when I really keyed in on what was really going on.

This is also heavily taken from an old movie called TORSO... check it out. mid 70's ITALIAN gore film in which I heard the director for SAW drew much from.. and it shows if you've seen the two films.

I think the clues and run about of the movie, while in the room, was nothing short of brilliant... I think it lost its luster when it took us out of that situation.  That is my opinion... more of the room and the basics of what are we gonna do now, that's what really sold this movie.

It is also a slight remake of TORSO in a lot of ways too... I look at it as such or maybe and update...

I dunno... in the end, I stacked this up to shit movies such as THE GRUDGE, THE VILLAGE, DARKNESS FALLS, BOOGEYMAN and all the rest and this movie really shines... and shines big.

In the end, for what it was and still is... SAW is a damn fine horror flick that makes you wonder why more horror movies in this vien can't be on par with it.

I give it a thumbs up for design alone.  While it was heavily borrowed at times and didn't keep my interest 100% and the follow thru with the killer was a bit predictable "although as to why he did it or is doing it still questions me" I really enjoyed SAW and have since seen it 4 times now... more than any new horror movie would ever dare to peek my interest.

GOOD THOUGHTS~

It's no big secret that I don't like horror the genre as a whole because it's not very inventive to stalk and murder people with no real threat of dying or going to prison, I can do that myself but don't because it's not realistic.

Anyways I believe the reason I like this film is because I don't watch horror films on a very large scale, I've seen maybe 30 - 50 my whole life and only enjoyed 10% 28 days Later, Saw, Beyond Reanimator etc. Movies that are cheap when I have money to spend basically.

I can't believe how bad Starsky and hutch was though, off topic but damn that was a really poorly executed film.

While I dig the idea, like Balt, I have to say this was way too over-hyped.  Why the hell did writer Whanell put himself in the lead role (he's a horrendous actor)?  Worse, why did he make the decision to speak without his Austrailian accent, making his voice high-pitched and wildly annoying?  As for the twist at the end, did I see it coming?  Not at all.  Does that make it good?  No, as I see it as a total cop out (if the orderly wasn't the killer, why the fuck did he do all that whacky shit?  Because he's weird?  I don't except that).  Unfortunately for myself, I found myself not liking this nearly as much as I did upon first viewing it in a theater.  While it isn't really bad, it's not very good either.

Another case of an independent film being way, way, way, way too over-hyped before it's release.

Movie: **1/2 out of ****

DVD Extras: **1/2 out of ****

The commentary is very good, but the rest is crap.  The "Making-Of" is just over two minutes which is funny considering the "Making-Of" included for the fucking music video clocks in at over five minutes.  Speaking of the music video, there is no really big difference between the "Rated" and "Unrated" version that I could tell.  And as for the quality of both, it looks like it was filmed in somebody's basement with a camera no better than the $400 one I bought at Best Buy.

On a final note, apparently there where many shots of gore cut from the theatrical release.  I wouldn't be surprised if a few months from now some 2-disc, Unrated edition is announced.

I hope so because this one was pathetically executed in the world of dvd, it's one of the best commentaries but I don't think you should be aloud to charge if you can't throw in some good features to make it worth the money they ask.

SPOILERS***

Syco, unless you’re talking about something else or I'm confused and can’t remember things (I've only seen this film once, a few months ago), the Orderly did the wacky stuff because he too was going to die if he didn't (he had the dreaded recorded message on a Dictaphone). I'm gonna buy this, soon. I loved it and I didn't see the twists and turns coming at all. Jigsaw is a great name for the killer, as the film is like one in itself.

Ian

I seen everything coming because I SAW the movie a few months earlier. When I first heard of this film early last year it was billed as the gorriest film in a long time and where did that go? The mpaa doesn't care about gore so why not have any, when the girl rips out the guys intestines and he's still alive I'd like to see a little more.

Those intestines were real but they belonged to a pig, the pig got a part in the film.

Finally saw this, and enjoyed it quite a lot.  I thought it was quite clever and had a neat sense of style for the most part.  I didn't like the way that quasi-car-chase scene was done, and Cary Elwes' acting was a tiny bit laughable from time to time, but for the most part it was really quite good.  

In any case, I didn't think it was as good as I had heard but I thought it was a lot better than most of the recent horror films I've seen.  Reminded me quite alot of Seven.