Leigh Whannell writer and co-star creates a horrifying story that relies more on psychological tension between the two main actors aside from the usual slasher fare. Low budget but far from low-tech, “Saw” is everything I hoped for and more. There are some truly disorienting sequences, especially those of the torture the killer Jigsaw inflicts on his victims much like Argento whose characters always experience gruesome, beyond disgusting deaths. “Saw” is a study in pure and utter madness and horror not by monsters, but from inner monsters of torture, torment, and sin. Leigh Whannell is great here and plays off well with Cary Elwes who adds his usual likability with every role he gives and is a great character in the logical area of the situation as Leigh is the more pervasive and panicky role. The film is murky and effectively tense, along with the method of Jigsaw’s communication with his victims, which is creative including his puppetry.
Director James Wan and Leigh Whannell know horror and they just amp it up three fold with a lot of violence, gore and sick humor. Monica Potter pulls off a good performance here as the desperate wife of Elwes’ character, and Whannell and Elwes have a great chemistry together and pull off some mounting tension that builds with every passing minute. That said, why, oh why is Danny Glover even in this movie? He looks bored and exhausted here which is amazing because he barely has a part here. He comes in and out of the story and is driven to find Jigsaw, but he has no back story to make us root for him. And I just have to say, Detective David Tapp (Glover) is quite possibly one of the worst officers I’ve ever seen in the movie. This guy does not know his hand from his ass here, and he is useless. His actions are so far-fetched and utterly annoying, he doesn’t make one sensible move here, and it was painful to watch. “Saw” has it all. Gore, violence, an excellent script, and top notch tension all put together with a whopper of a horror outing.