Saw - 11/07/04

Written by: Leigh Whannell

Starring: Leigh Whannell, Cary Elwes, Danny Glover, Ken Leung, Dina Meyer, Monica Potter

Official Site

Similar to when Memento came out, one of the things that Saw had going for it was a HUGE internet following. The website is pretty incredible, as was Memento's. Internet advertising... well, I saw the ads for Saw everywhere online. CHUD.com and JoBlo.com had them everywhere... and it seems that James Wan and Leigh Whannell wanted everyone to know that they were around for interviews and the such.

The two, along with Lion's Gate, hyped this movie up a lot... especially after LGF went after Saw even before its premier at Sundance.

Made on just over $1 million dollars, this is the kind of movie that people should aspire to. Not just horror writers and directors, but of all genres.

Smart, intelligent, witty, dark, bleak scripts can be written so that the locations can be minimal. We've been witness to it for over a decade now, with everyone's eyes opening up after Clerks, Reservoir Dogs and El Mariachi... although it'd been happening since the birth of film.

Pop culture has a way of redefining things that have always been there, and making them new again. Very strange that people don't see this, especially in film.

Ok.

On $1 million, this film has made close to $40 million, inside of a month. Now, I'm fairly certain that Wan and Whannell weren't thinking about the money when they were making this film. But they must be thinking about it now. This is one of the more successful low budget films, especially horror films, to come out in a long time. Certainly no Blair Witch or Halloween... but in a league of its own, definitely. It's already started the wheels of production for a sequel, after its opening weekend of $20 million.

The first thing this film has is a smart script. Whannell reminds me, somewhat, of Stephen Gevedon, the writer of Session 9, who also played a very important role in the film. Whannell plays a major role in this film.

Whannell was in The Matrix Reloaded... as Axel. Don't remember him. But he wrote a hell of a script here. Very smart, thrilling and gruesome. Whannell has an apparent love of horror... this is one of the more original horror films I've seen in a while.

Think about a genre film you like. Now think of similar genre films. Romantic comedies are formula based scripts... you can say all genres are, but romantic comedies are strict in their outlines. You can see similar veins in scripts with matching genres. Similar act structure. Similar conflicts.

This film, though following the horror structure, does more to branch out and create an uneven, frightening world than most do. It's one of the major factors that make this script so successful.

The characters are pretty well fleshed out... it's kind of difficult to figure out what some people would do in the situations that take place in this film... I think Whannell captured most of it pretty well.

One of the biggest problems with the film, towards the end, is the overacting by Elwes. I dig his work... I think he's a fine actor, but this role was a little too much for him, I think, and it made him go over the top with the character. A lot of his work in the film is good, especially when he's just being a doctor... but when he's being a tortured man... eh. Not too convincing.

Whannell, of course, has the best lines. This, again, reminds me of Gevedon, whose character in Session 9 was the one that kept the pace of the film moving... making him one of the most important characters. Whannell did a good job in this film, for not having a major role to his credit prior to Saw.

Danny Glover is Danny Glover. He's pretty much the same with every role we see him in. He's solid, a good actor. Ken Leung was quite good in his role. I was impressed with his delivery as a detective.

Dina Meyer and Monica Potter both play decent roles, but we really don't see much of them, and Meyer less than Potter. Potter had a good chemistry with Makenzie Vega who plays the daughter. The scenes with the two of them and their captor were quite believable.

This is not a redux of Se7en. That is a disservice to this script and the directing by Wan, who handles himself quite well with this feature, his first. You can certainly see some influences from Fincher, Lynch... hell, imagery from any of the great horror films that have come out over the last decade. But Wan breaks free from imitation. That would have been easy, to regurgitate imagery we've seen... imagery that has worked.

Wan had some help in cinematographer David A. Armstrong. The work is relatively clean, has a serious look about it that reminds me of any number of music videos that have come out in the last fifteen years... but Armstrong really knows his lighting. I was very impressed with that aspect of the photography.

I was impressed with this movie, although have no idea why there were two fourteen year old girls sitting behind me, watching Saw... come on, where are the parents for chrissake? Plus, the audio in the theater sucked... but I was very impressed with the entire film.

Saw 2. I don't know. It will probably suck. This film isn't sequel open ended... ok, it is, but it's weak. We'll just have to wait and see.