Two strangers, a photographer Adam and doctor Gordon wake up on the opposite sides of a dirty bathroom, chained by their ankles to some pipes. Between them lies a dead man loosely clutching a hand-held tape player and a handgun. Each finds a tape for the player in their back pocket. They play the tapes. One is threatened, the other one isn’t. But they have a task: One must kill the other by 6:00. They find chainsaws in a toilet, and try to cut the chains, but it doesn’t work. They are the two newest victims of the Jigsaw Killer. We learn of other victims through flashbacks and all of the victims are connected one way or another. We also learn of the nearly-successful capture of the Jigsaw Killer, who doesn’t actually kill his victims. Instead, he finds ways to make them kill either themselves, or each other, and he thinks the entire ‘game’ out perfectly, with seemingly no other way out.
I’m going to do some fun facts first on this. This movie is written and directed by James Wan. One of the best modern horror writers and directors out there. Leigh Whannell didn’t achieve much in directing, but he is a frequent collaborator on James Wan’s movies as a writer. He did write and direct the 2020 horror/sci-fi/mystery movie The Invisible Man which I liked a lot. This movie, though, launched both their careers.
On with the positives! I loved the countless plot twists in this movie. The mystery is revealed through flashbacks and some really well-handled exposition and you don’t know how this movie is going to end up until the very end which makes for a really entertaining watch. The guy who you think is the Jigsaw Killer is very well written in this movie. You’re scared of the guy, yet you also understand what his motivation is which makes him a really interesting character. The actual Jigsaw Killer isn’t really that interesting. But in the sequel, I’d say he’s a lot more interesting than the ”fake” Jigsaw Killer, which is why I really liked the sequel almost quite as much as I liked this first one. Great writing. If they somehow combined this movie with the stuff from the sequel, this would be one of the best horror/mystery movies ever put to screen. A 2-and-a-half hour well-written horror/mystery movie with an interesting villain? TAKE MY MONEY!
As far as issues go with this movie, I don’t really have much. Actually, I don’t have anything, really. This movie is really fast paced, even at it’s slowest it keeps you interested. If I wanted to be nit picky about this movie, the only two things I would knock the grade down for would be the acting from pretty much everybody and also the violence gets a little too extreme. I personally handled the violence really well, but there was one moment towards the end of the movie that almost made shut it off. And that’s pretty much all the obvious negatives. I’m giving this movie 8/10*
Director: James Wan
Written by: James Wan & Leigh Whannell
Starring: Cary Elwes, Leigh Whannell, Danny Glover, Tobin Bell
Runtime: 103 minutes