I wish James Wan would stop piddling with those stupid Aquaman movies. Get back to your roots, James! Saw and Insidious are what your fans want, not spandex and colorful fish. Hopefully Malignant, coming this fall, is what we’re all hoping for: a terrifying and original horror flick.
Aside from my wife, my eldest daughter, Kaleigh, is typically the person I watch horror movies with the most. She loves them almost on the same level as myself. My youngest daughter, Ella, is the exact opposite. She has never wanted to watch horror movies. Even the last Goosebumps movie was too much for her. So was that ridiculous Adam Sandler comedy-horror that came out in 2020. Imagine my shock when she said she wanted to watch Saw. After trying briefly to back out of it, Ella sat down with her mom and me to watch the 2004 genre-changing classic. The blanket spent a lot of time pulled over her shocked eyes, but she stuck it out for the most part.
That was probably the reaction a good many of us had the first time we saw Saw. The sequels predictably became ever more absurd, with ever more blood and ever more complex kills and games. But the original is simply brilliant.
If you live in a cave and haven’t seen it, here’s the plot synopsis from IMDB: Two strangers awaken in a room with no recollection of how they got there, and soon discover they’re pawns in a deadly game perpetrated by a notorious serial killer.
The IMDB synopsis rarely does a movie justice. Saw could really be called a mystery thriller with horror elements, namely blood and gore. But, for those of you who have seen the movie before, the gore is not as prevalent as you probably remember. The camera is purposely out of focus and jumping from one thing to another when the guy is climbing through razor wire. And the camera turns away when Lawrence (played wonderfully by Cary Elwes) saws his own foot off. While the is blood and gore, it’s largely implied. Overwhelming suspense is what truly makes Saw a classic. The “What the fuck is going on?” and “How the hell are they going to get out of this?” aspects of the movie. There have been plenty of imitators since 2004, but few have come close to Saw‘s originality.
I think I’m ready for Spiral now. Hopefully it brings the Saw series out of the ditch of despair.
PC3’s Horror and Exploitation Movie Scale of Awesomeness
Gore – 7
Special Effects – 7
Nudity/Sexuality – 0
Wow Factor – 10
Acting – 7
Fear Factor – 8
Story/Plot/Originality – 9
Cinematography/Atmosphere – 7
Sound/Music – 5
Fun Factor – 5
The PHEMSA combined score for Saw is 65. It hits and scores in almost every category. Strongest in Wow Factor and Originality.
Watch the original here: Amazon