All movies have the ability to disappoint, but it seems that scary movies carry the majority of this burden. This is certainly not surprising, especially after considering the genre's recent trends which include gory gross-out special effects that are supposed to lead to scares but actually only lead to nausea (see \House of a 1,000 Corpses"") and a filmmaker's keen ability to underestimate the audience's intelligence by employing tired clich??s that only serve to trick and manipulate (see any thriller starring Ashley Judd). The new grisly serial killer flick ""Saw,"" written and directed by James Wan, falls somewhere in between these two extremes, managing to scare audiences effectively with creepy, gory situations and insulting their intelligence and patience with underdeveloped characters, plot holes and tired clich?? after tired clich??.
Like most serial killer movies, this one focuses on a rogue madman who is killing his victims in a methodical and-in this case-highly intricate manner (his modus operandi is so complex he is labeled the ""Jigsaw"" killer), the baffled police who are hot on the trail of the killer and the innocent bystanders who are trying to survive. ""Saw"" causes a few more goose bumps than the normal thriller fare, mainly because the killer often adorns surreal, frightening masks and creates horrific scenarios that his victims must escape in order to survive. At one point, a trapped young woman with impressive headgear is given the option via videotape of either killing a fellow prisoner whose stomach happens to contain a key that unlocks said headgear or waiting patiently for the headgear to explode, subsequently taking her head with it. The moments following her decision are the creepiest in all of the film.
The movie's central storyline is equally horrific in setup and execution, plus it manages to throw in a few neat little twists. Adam (Leigh Wannell, ""The Matrix Reloaded"") and Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes, sporting a few more wrinkles and pounds than in his ""The Princess Bride"" days) are two strangers who, within the opening sequence of ""Saw,"" inexplicably find themselves chained to opposite sides of what appears to be a condemned restroom. All that remain in the open space is a grimy toilet, a large mirror, a brand new clock and a man with a large hole through his head. As both men frantically try to recall how they got here or who would do this, they discover two cassette tapes in their respective pockets. Lucky for them, the dead man in the middle of the room conveniently has a tape player.
But for all of its creepiness, ""Saw"" never graduates into pure psychological terror, although James Wan probably intended as much. There is simply too much energy spent on creating elaborate, original death scenes, that all of the film's other subplots are thrown together at the last minute without any thought to their fluidity or logic within the context of the film. Certain characters are introduced never to be seen or heard from again; relationships that should form a foundation for character development and audience sympathy are underdeveloped and ultimately useless, and crucial character development is merely alluded to while unnecessary subplots are given an unseemly amount of screen time. Clearly, something was amiss in the editing department.
None of this forgives the script's undeniable penchant for exhausted genre conventions that even a three-year-old could spot from a distance. Perhaps by itself, the ""troubled marriage"" clich?? that is always suggested by a few angry words referencing one of the partners' (in this case, the husband's) inability to love and/or constant absence from the home would have been tolerable. And maybe it would have only been a slight annoyance when one of the characters executed the omnipresent ""I-had-the-perfect-chance to-shoot-the-killer-but-instead-chose-to-look-the-other-way-so-I could-get-attacked-once-again"" clich??. But two hours of plodding car chases, shootouts and expository flashbacks is enough to turn anybody into an angry serial killer.
Then again, maybe Wan doesn't deserve such harsh criticism. This is his first film after all and this film will undoubtedly garner enough attention to merit a second film. Maybe his next one will be an improvement. ""Saw"" attests that Wan has the capability to create horrific, spine-tingling scenarios and lighten up any situation with humor. He just needs to stay away from tired genre mechanisms (or find a creative way to turn them on their head) and spend a few more quality hours in the editing room. And if he chooses to ignore these methods for improvement... well, at least Ashley Judd can sleep easy knowing she'll always have work.
