Chuckles Film Review: Saw

Two strangers wake up chained and trapped in a room, victims of a twisted killer called Jigsaw who invents deadly games for people he despises. To escape his games you must injure or disfigure yourself-or kill someone else.  If you don't play the game...you die.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387564/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 

Starring Cary Elwes, Danny Glover, Monica Potter, Leigh Whannell, Ken Leung, Dina Meyer, Michael Emerson and Tobin Bell.

Dr Lawrence Gordon and Adam find themselves trapped in a room with a dead body holding a gun and a tape recorder, tapes in their pockets explaining the game. If Lawrence wants to save his wife and daughter, he must kill Adam before time is up-or can he and Adam find a way to beat Jigsaw at his own game by working together?

I love this film! I've lost count of how many times I've watched it. I liked the idea of the games-people who were wasting their lives on drugs, suicide attempts, faking illnesses earned the ire of Jigsaw who decided to test them as to whether they wanted to live or die, but never actually doing the deed himself. Technically he isn't a killer as he never murders anyone himself but he finds ways to make people kill themselves trying to survive, or kill others to win the game. If you win the game and prove yourself, Jigsaw will let you go and you can have a second chance at life. He sees it as punishing those unworthy of a life, a life that he finds precious now that his own health is failing. I guess you can understand his thinking even if his methods are brutal and over the top. I can get why he would be bitter seeing others waste the time he doesn't have and it makes for a good plot.

Detective Tapp is investigating the Jigsaw murders and is certain that Lawrence has something to do with the killings thanks to evidence left at one of the scenes. Now he has gradually become obsessed with getting to the truth and stopping the killings, but Jigsaw is always one step ahead of him. I really enjoyed Danny Glover's portrayal of Tapp as he goes from investigation to obsessive. 

Neither of our two leading men cover themselves in glory in this film. Lawrence is the arrogant surgeon who doesn't see his patients as people and has a cold and clinical nature. This extends to his home life where he barely has time for his wife and daughter and is on the verge on an affair with a young intern. He in not greatly likable. Adam is even worse. He makes a living following and photographing rich men, catching them in lies but has an attitude problem. From the minute he wakes up in the room, he is quite uncooperative, rude and obnoxious. Lawrence has already seen what Amanda had to do to escape Jigsaw's game so he is well aware that he would not be blamed for doing the same to save his family. The evidence of the tapes and the game are there to back him up so why not just kill Adam? I was surprised by his actions.

The best bit was the final twist which I did not see coming at all. I thought it was brilliant. It was a lot of fun to watch it again for my Halloween Horrorfest month!