I’m doing a podcast with Chris on the Saw franchise. I thought that I could easily just go back to my blogs as a nice refresher and get caught up. Nope, I did a horrific, half-assed job on all of them. Since I have to rewatch these films now so I am not a complete imbecile, I may as well do better blogs while I am at it. I originally wrote the blogs for Parts 1-7 in October of 2013 and Jigsaw in 2017. Clearly, I’ve grown so much as a writer, because I got fatter. Hopefully, I can do better than I originally did.
Before we start the film, we have to acknowledge the talent involved in this film. The movie was directed by James Wan who went on to direct Dead Silence, The Conjuring 1 & 2, Insidious 1 & 2, Aquaman 1 & 2, Death Sentence with Kevin Bacon, and Furious 7. The dude knows how to make good horror….and Insidious. You’d probably say that Cary Elwes as Dr. Lawrence Gordon, and Leigh Whannell as Adam, are the 2 leads. The supporting cast includes the great Danny Glover (Lethal Weapon franchise), Dina Meyer (Starship Troopers), Shawnee Smith (The Stand), Michael Emerson (Person of Interest and Lost), Monica Potter (Nic Cage’s wife in Con Air), and of course, Tobin Bell as John Kramer. That’s a pretty loaded cast for a horror film.
Finally, I admit that I am clearly a bit biased in my opinion on this film. After all, I have a tattoo of the Jigsaw puppet/Billy. The funny thing is that I thought that this film was pretty average the first time that I saw it. I wasn’t sure what all the hype was. It was just another bunch of bullshit with a twist ending and some familiar faces. Meh. Then I watched it again with my mom, and it was better. It got better every time that I would show it to a friend, and I finally “got it”. There are plenty of layers here, plenty of clues throughout. And for fans of the franchise, this really laid the foundation for understanding the time shifts in the story. There’s a lot to love here.
Start Film
The first thing that you see is something floating in the water and as Adam wakes up, we see whatever it was going down the drain. Could have been a key, could have been a necklace, could have been Adam’s dignity. Adam is talking, wondering if he’s dead, and that’s then we meet Dr. Lawrence Gordon. Gordon turns on the light and we see an older man in the middle of the floor with a gun and a pool of blood around his head. Both Adam and Gordon are chained to the wall, but they are in opposite sides of the room. This looks like an old utility room or locker room. Neither guy remembers how or why they got there. Adam is worried that someone has taken his kidneys and sold them on eBay. Adam learns that Lawrence Gordon is a surgeon.
Gordon notices a brand new clock in their room, Obviously, somebody wants them to have a sense of time. Gordon can’t open the big ass door. Adam finds an envelope in his pocket with a microcassette. Gordon also has an envelope. Both men have tapes that say “PLAY ME”. Gordon also has a key and a bullet in his. The key obviously doesn’t undo the shackles. Adam now realizes that the dead man in the room has a tape recorder in his hand. So now Adam quintessentially goes fishing with his shirt, but to no avail. Adam ties the tub stopper to his shirt. Gordon is impatient. I call bullshit that he was able to get the recorder on that few attempts. Adam plays his tape and the voice is awesome. The voice calls Adam a voyeur. Gordon asks Adam for the recorder, which is stupid and Adam calls Gordon out on it. Gordon’s tape has the same voice on it. Usually, Gordon has to give bad news about a death, but today, his goal is to actually kill Adam. He has until 6 on the clock to do it, and it is current 10:36 per the clock. The voice also talks about the man in the room. When there’s that much poison in your blood, there’s nothing left to do but to poison yourself. The voice then gives a sickly cough. There are ways to win this all around them. X marks the spot for the treasure. If he doesn’t kill Adam by 6, then Alison and Diana (wife and daughter) will die and Gordon will be left in this room to rot.
“Let the game begin.”
Gordon asks for the recorder. Gordon listens to the recording and hears a whisper that says “Follow your heart”. No bitch, it’s “Follow your nose”, per Tucan Sam. They find the heart on a toilet and Adam is digging through the sludge in the toilet. Nothing. He then checks the toilet tank and there is a bag. Inside the bag are 2 hacksaws. Adam starts sawing and tosses Gordon one. Adam sneakily tosses the bag into the tub where he woke up. The saws aren’t cutting the chains. But Adam broke a piece of the mirror. Gordon says that “He” doesn’t want them to cut through the chain but rather their foot. Gordon has an idea of who it may be because he at one point was considered a suspect. It’s flashback time suckas. Sit back, grab some Sour Patch Kids and enjoy.
We get Detective Tapp (Danny Glover), Detective Sing, and Kerry (Dina Meyer). I assume that she is also a detective. They find a dead 46-year-old man who has bled out and tried crawling through a room of razor wire. There is another recorder and this is a message for Paul and it was about him running razors across his wrists. Foolish move, sir. If Paul wanted to die, he could just sit there, but if he wanted to live, he’d have to cut himself and make it through the room. He had almost 2 hours to achieve this, and then the door sealed shut. Ohhh, a piece of his skin was carved off that looked like a jigsaw piece. I almost got a tattoo of a jigsaw piece once.
Next up is a flashback about Mark, who supposedly had a sickness, ooh ah ah ah ahhhh. Mark has been poisoned. The antidote is inside a safe. The code to the safe is written on the wall. All the walls are covered in numbers. Oh yeah, one problem. Mark’s only source of light is a candle and Mark is covered in a very flammable substance. Good times. The floor is also covered in broken glass. Mark burns to death. Kerry claims that Jigsaw watches the people play the game. But he left a penlight hanging around.
Spoiler alert time. Now we’re at the hospital with Gordon talking about a patient’s frontal global tumor. He is teaching younger doctors. There is an orderly named Zep that interrupts and tells the group that the patient’s name is John. We quickly see a glimpse of the patient. We see an old man who looks awfully familiar and he appears to be resting. He has a drawing on his tray table. If you look closely and pause it, the image drawn is that of a reverse bear trap. You know where this is going. Dr. Gordon has to leave but one of the girls is certainly eyeballing him. I wonder…… Anyway, Gordon meets Tapp and Sing. They ask him where he was between 11 and 1 the previous night. They want him to go for some questioning. Gordon asks what it’s all about and they show him the penlight. Gordon admits to seeing a woman that night while talking to his lawyer. This was 5 months ago.
They checked his alibi, it held up. No shit. They ask him to stay around and listen to the next victim, Amanda, and see if it triggers anything in his memory. Amanda is played by Shawnee Smith. What is funny is that the dude who plays Adam was a co-creator of the film and when asked who he’d like for this role, he suggested Shawnee because he used to have a crush on her. #MeToo because of her role in The Stand. Back to the film.
Amanda is the only victim that survived. Tapp asks her to describe her situation. She woke up with a trap on her head and can’t talk, and tastes blood and metal. She sees a video with the puppet talking to her. The puppet wants to play a game. We see what happens when the timer goes off, it causes the lower jaw to be ripped off. There is a key to open the device in the stomach of her dead cellmate. “Live or die, make your choice”. The music got obnoxiously loud there, which I certainly didn’t appreciate. It was too corny and the visual style reeked of early 2000’s horror. She gets out of the chair and that starts the timer. The music is so obnoxious. True story, Shawnee was sick, had a 104 fever, supposedly, during filming. She sees the body and lifts up the man’s shirt and he has a question mark drawn on his chest. She finds a knife. The man wakes up but says nothing. She goes to town on him. He had been injected with an opioid overdose. She goes through his guts, gets the key, and manages to get the trap off with 2 seconds to spare. Good for her. Then the Puppet comes riding into the room on a tricycle and says “Congratulations, you are still alive. Most people are so ungrateful to be alive, but not you. Not anymore.” Tapp says that Mandy is a drug addict, I prefer calling her Amanda, thank you very much. He asks if she thinks that is why he picked her. He asks if she is grateful, she says that he helped her. See, mother fucker is a god damn hero.
When people see my tattoo, they make assumptions. I get it. I love these films, and I love the design of the puppet. It’s all awesome to me. But what people fail to realize is the true reason for the tattoo. Being a person who has been dealing with depression for over 25 years at this point, sometimes it helps to have a little reminder to be grateful for the life that you have, even if it isn’t going as you’d like, it’s still something to be grateful for. I also really enjoy Peanut M&M’s.
Back to the present situation. Adam asks how he can be sure it isn’t Gordon behind it. Adam threatens to cut Gordon with the mirror shard, but he realizes it’s actually a 2-way mirror. Somebody is talking to the screen as he watches Adam and Gordon. “This is the most fun I’ve had without lubricant”, Adam quips. Gordon recognizes how perfect this set up is, and wants to look for the X. Adam antagonizes Gordon about his wife and daughter. Gordon thinks back to the last thing that he said to his daughter.
Flashback to Diana waking up at night, acting all weird. Hey, there’s Monica Potter. Annnnd tell me how, how do I live without you? I want to know…. Man, I love Con Air. Anyway, a man was talking to Diana in her room and she was super calm about the whole situation. She wants her daddy to get rid of the scary man. Gordon is typing away like crazy and he needs to finish what he’s writing. I get it, sir. Bitches always interrupting ya when you trying to do work. Gordon gets a beeper message and he’s gotta go to work…or so he says. Diana is worried that daddy is gonna leave her and mommy. Still don’t believe that she was talking to a scary man? Now Alison rides his ass. She’s a peach. Like Princess Peach.
Gordon shows Adam a picture of Diana. He tosses Adam his wallet. Adam wonders if he has a picture of his wife and Gordon says it’s behind the picture of Diana. Wellllll shiiiit, instead there’s a picture with Alison and Diana tied up and their mouths taped and a message from Jigsaw about X can be seen with your eyes shut. Adam tells Gordon that the photo wasn’t there, and Adam steals the Jigsaw picture and tosses back the wallet. Flashback to Alison still being all bitchy. There’s a reason why there is a dinosaur named after Alison. In Diana’s room, she hears a voice saying goodnight little girl, and she screams and Diana and Alison get tied up. Who is behind it though? The man uses a stethoscope on Diana and then brings out a gun just to hear how much faster the heartbeats are. Diana is annoying. He looks out the window and Tapp is seeing this shit. That guy looks familiar. Tapp is talking al seductively to himself and he has gone psycho in his home. He has been hunting the Jigsaw killer. Tapp believes that he should have never let Gordon go.
We see when Tapp drops Gordon off after the questioning. Tapp was kind of a dick to Gordon. Tapp is now watching a video of the puppet talking to Amanda. Tapp is becoming obsessive it appears. Sing says that the guys are going to the local grill, but Tapp ain’t having it. Glover doesn’t get enough credit for his performance in this. Tapp notices something in the video, some graffiti. They know where that territory is and they can also hear an alarm. They pinpoint where it is, Sing asks if they enough for a warrant Tapp is like, who said anything about a warrant? So him and Sing to this place, at night. They go inside and find all sorts of fun shit. They end up in a caged storage room of sorts. There’s a diorama showing Adam and Gordon. A bunch of things are covered by red sheets and blankets. They uncover the puppet. Then a man makes a sound, and he was covered and gagged. Sing wants to take the shot as someone is coming up the elevator. Tapp says to hide and see who it is.
There he is, in a black and red robe. He tells the guy that he will serve a bigger purpose. Cops pop out, tell him to freeze. Instead, he quickly starts the next trap. In 20 seconds, this dude will die. There are 2 spikes slowly gliding toward this man’s neck. I think his name is Jeff. Sing has to find the right key from a box with a large keyring. Yeah. Tapp still won’t shoot and “Jigsaw” asks what’s more important, arresting him or saving someone’s life. Jigsaw admits to being sick. Sing has to shoot the trap. This gets Tapp’s attention and Jigsaw has a blade up his sleeve and slices Tapp’s throat. That always gets me. Sing is a terrible shot. Jigsaw can run away like a champ. Sing pursues Jigsaw while Tapp looks like hell. Sing is too aggressive in his pursuit and the music is trash. Sing actually shoots Jigsaw. Tapp is trying to make his way downstairs. Sing sees the huge cobweb in front of him but fails to notice the tripwire that just triggered 5 or 6 shotty’s and blew off Sing’s head. And Jigsaw gets up and leaves. And this is why Tapp is obsessive, he wants to close this case.
Okay, the guy watching Gordon and Adam is Zep. Adam is secretly looking at the picture and Gordon is trying to find the X. Adam tells Gordon to turn off the lights and there’s the X behind Gordon. Gordon breaks through the wall to find a box. Of course, there’s a box. The box is locked, so they now use the first key. Inside the box, we find…..a flip phone, a cigarette, a lighter, and a note. Adam is begging for the cigarette. The note says that Gordon doesn’t need a gun to kill Adam and references poison. As I’m watching this, all I can think of is the line in the Simpsons “Smokers are jokers.” I think Ralph Wiggum said that gem. Gordon tries to call the police, but the phone is only for receiving calls.
The previous night, Gordon was walking to his car while in a parking garage and was sure someone else was there with him. There was a flash, during the flashback. Gordon tries to make a call but to no avail. The back doors have opened and two people in red robes and hairy pig masks attack Gordon.
Gordon asks Adam how he knew to turn off the lights. Adam claims it was instincts. Gordon calls him a terrible liar. Adam gets all defensive. This is fucking adorable. Adam gets sick of Gordon’s shit and tosses him the picture. Gordon has a meltdown, as one would expect. Now Gordon is thinking about the cigarette and the poison in the blood. He dips the end of the cigarette in the dead man’s blood. Gordon turns off the light. He whispers to Adam to play along with him. Zep is still observing. Gordon tosses Adam a non-poisoned cigarette. Adam lights up. Then Adam acts like he is choking and doing the worst overacted fake death ever. Gordon then yells that he killed Adam and wants to find his family. Well, Adam then got shocked. Hahaha, brilliant. Gordon is livid. He grabs the saw and tries the chain again. Believe it or not, it still doesn’t work. Adam suddenly remembers how he got there.
Adam came home one night and he is a photographer. He has been taking pictures of Gordon. That explains the Flash, or does it? Adam falls asleep while waiting for the pictures to do their thing and the red light won’t work now. There’s a sound in his apartment. Now, he has a flashlight that doesn’t work and a camera. Naturally, he grabs the camera and uses the flash. He’s looking for the person. Seriously, shoulda brought that damn light, plus you keep giving away your position. Make them come to you. He is startled by the puppet in a chair laughing. Hahaha, fantastic. He still hears someone in there. Now he has a baseball bat at least. He flashes the light and a red-robed minion attacks.
Gordon gets a call on the flip phone, and it’s Diana. She’s crying and told him that the bad man from her room is there. Alison gets on the phone and asks if Adam is there. She says “Don’t believe Adam’s lies and that he knew all about Lawrence before today. Is this Momento with the whole “don’t believe his lies” business? Lawrence freaks out and Adam asks if they’re okay. Lawrence says that he was told not to believe Adam. Leigh is a good actor, I will give him that. Adam calls Gordon out on his shit. Adam reveals that he was the one who took the picture in the parking lot. Oh wow, Adam pulls out the bag that he saved and it has all the pictures that he took of Gordon. Adam gets paid to spy on rich guys who are cheating. I call bullshit that he is never heard by Gordon. Gordon is in the room with the pretty girl from earlier that was eyeballing him. He is upset that she didn’t page him at the right time. He apologizes to her and is about to leave and then there’s a phone call for Gordon. Her name is Carla. The person says that they know what he’s doing. This freaks out Gordon and he goes to leave.
Gordon asked who was paying him, and Adam says it was some guy named Bob. Adam reveals that it was a tall black guy with a scar around his neck that hired Adam. Tapp was discharged and was obsessed with Gordon. Gordon is acting all holier than thou. They get all pissy at each other. Gordon gets all whiny about how he had the perfect life.
Alison gets an opportunity to talk and tells Diana to be strong or brave or some garbage.
Adam asks if there was someone else at Gordon’s house aside from his wife and daughter. There he is, it’s Zep. Gordon is enraged. Adam notes that they are officially out of time. We see Zep looking at the monitor and getting the gun ready. The girls act like they’re still tied up. Zep tells the girls that Gordon’s time is up. Zep makes Alison call Gordon to let him know that he failed. Alison calls and then says “You failed” and then attacks Zep and gets his gun. John Doe has the upper hand. She tells him to give her the phone. God, she is doing everything wrong. She is way too close to him while also using the phone. Diana distracts, Zep makes his move, and the gun goes off twice. Gordon can only hear the commotion. Tapp goes into motion. Diana is so stupid and obnoxious. Tapp is shooting at Zep, Zep is shooting at Tapp. The girls are running away. Tapp goes for the tackle. Gordon goes for the crying. Glass vase breaks over Tapp’s head. Zep is still looking for the girls. You gotta take Tapp out, fool! He says that he has to take her husband out now. Tapp is up. The chase is on. Gordon is….still crying. Oh, he just got shocked badly.
Tapp and Zep are driving really fast and Adam is yelling at Gordon to get up, so he throws shit at him. Gordon wakes up. “Fuck this shit!’ screams Gordon. Zep gets to the place first and Tapp is following. Zep’s leg is hurt though. Zep is climbing down a ladder. The phone is ringing and Gordon can’t grab it. Tapp is still giving chase. A bunch of gunshots miss. Gordon is losing his shit. This is a great movie to watch at 4 AM. Lawrence is taking off his shirt and tying it around his foot. He picks up the hacksaw and goes to town and saws on his foot. Tapp tackles Zep. Lawrence is still SAW-ing. Adam is in utter disbelief. Zep shoots Tapp. Lawrence now crawls for the phone. Tapp appears to be dead. Gordon grabs the gun from the dead man and loads the single bullet. He is sickly white and says that he is sorry but he needs to do this for his family. He shoots Adam. They really did a great job on the makeup for Gordon.
Zep opens up the door and Gordon threatens to kill him and picks up the gun with no bullets and tries to fire at him. Zep says that Gordon was too late. Adam sweeps the leg, so to speak. Zep fires two shots. They miss. Adam destroys Zep with the top of the toilet tank. Gordon is gonna leave and get help. Adam doesn’t want him to leave, but otherwise, Gordon will bleed to death. Both guys are just in shit shape. Adam looks for a key on Zep. He finds his wallet. No key there. He finds a recorder on Zep. This is the message to Zep. Zep had to make a choice. He was poisoned and to get the antidote, he was to kill Alison and Diana. Those were the rules.
Then the dead guy gets up and shaking off the lactic acid. He peels off the rubber shit on his head that made him look terrible. John Kramer reveals that the key to that chain was in the bathtub, which is the very first thing that we saw. Adam goes to shoot John and John presses a button and zaps Adam. John turns off the light and walks out. “Game over!” and he slams the door closed as Adam screams.
End film
Jesus, that last 20 minutes or so is at such a ridiculously high pace. Then you have the big reveal that Zep was also playing his own game, which was more than satisfying enough. Then John stands up and holy balls. Fucking great stuff right there. If you are one of those people who claim that you knew the ending without any spoilers, please don’t tell me your lies. While it is entirely possible to predict some aspects, I don’t believe that back in 2004 that you fucking watched it and called that exact ending. I don’t believe your lies.
Let’s talk about the elephant that was in the room for a substantial amount of time. How the hell was Lawrence going to pull himself up that ladder given how weak he was and then crawl that long ass corridor in hopes of just making it outside? I say that it is physically impossible for a man in his shape and condition to escape that situation. But…..well, this won’t be the last time that I talk about this.
As a standalone film, this is really good. It has a lot of things going for it. All of the main characters are pretty awful people in some form or another. The storytelling techniques were good, even if it was mostly flashbacks, it felt a bit different than your typical film. The acting was really good. Gordon had some moments that were a tad over the top, but that adds charm in hindsight, but yes, you can nitpick that if you like. The gore really wasn’t too bad. It’s tame compared to what would be coming the following year. I do wish we had a bit more backstory on Zep, but they didn’t need it cut out all of the empty calories, so to speak. That’s okay.
Most people see this film as a one-trick pony. That’s simply not true. This is the horror Usual Suspects, which also had a ton of layers and great storytelling happening. Just because there’s a big reveal at the end doesn’t change how good or great the rest of the film is. Also, if you call this torture porn, you have no real understanding of horror. It’s that simple. What torture really took place? Where’s the porn? Oh, it doesn’t exist.
Something that does hold this film back a little is the occasional outlandish bit of soundtrack that really took me out of the moment rather than incite a panic. But, the big reveal music, the classic Saw franchise song, that fucking thing is a masterpiece. It works on all levels. I get pumped every time I hear it. Another gripe that I already addressed was some of the cinematography that simply plagued that time in horror history. The techniques weren’t used much here, but they were unnecessary, nonetheless.
Thankfully, this film did so much in establishing an identity for itself. This was the start of a great franchise….or was it? If you know the franchise, while this started things off, one could argue that part 2 was more important to this series making progress. You couldn’t keep making films with this pace and tell great stories. This was a good one and done. Now you take the mythical properties and apply them to other stories and interweave a delightful tapestry.
So the all-important question at the end is what do I give this for a final rating. It’s amazing to think that I may have at most given this a 6.0 the first time I saw it. With time and analysis, I have obviously raised that score a little bit. There aren’t many holes here. Everything is good to great. I give this a 7.8.
Final Rating – 7.8 And I should note that “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong is playing as I edit this blog. It just feels right.
All the pictures used in this blog are for review purposes. They are the property of:
Please go find a copy and support the creators.