+movie review+

I loved the trailer and video clips from “Saw,” so my expectations were relatively high going into the screening. Prepared for a gory good time, I wanted to like “Saw.” I wanted it to make me squirm, make me hide my eyes, and just get lost in a gross-out horror/thriller. But what I couldn’t have prepared myself for was just how horrific “Saw” turned out to be. And that’s not a compliment.

The premise is intriguing. “Saw” opens with two strangers awakening to find themselves chained to pipes on opposite sides of what seems to be some kind of decrepit industrial bathroom. Neither remembers how they got there or who did this to them. Between them lies another total stranger, face down in a pool of blood. In one hand is the gun he apparently blew his own brains out with, in the other is a tape recorder. The tension mounts. This could get good – and it does, to a point.

The strangers introduce themselves to each other. We meet Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes), a wealthy married man with a young daughter and a desire for women outside his marriage. We’re also introduced to Adam (Leigh Whannell), a photographer who’s kind of a loner. We’ve got to figure out what these two have in common, and how they have somehow left their peaceful lives behind and stepped into the world of a crazed serial killer. Actually, ‘killer’ isn’t quite the right term. The psycho behind the crimes doesn’t directly commit murder. He leaves his victims in situations where they must follow orders left on cassette tapes which, in some cases, instruct the victim to either kill or be killed. Failing to follow through on the order brings immediate death. Like I said, it’s an interesting premise.