"One of the 50 Coolest Websites...they simply tell it like it is" - TIME
Saw | 2004 | R | - 3.10.7
Two men (Cary Elwes and Leigh Whannell) wake up chained by the foot to pipes on opposite sides of a decrepit subterranean room. Between them, lying face down in a pool of blood is a dead man with a gun in his hand. Instructions left on a tape player order one of them to kill the other within eight hours. If he fails to do so, he will be killed along with his family and his cellmate. The only escape tools the men have are two handsaws -- too weak to cut their steel chains but capable of cutting through flesh and bone. Also with Danny Glover, Leigh Whannell, Monica Potter and Michael Emerson. Directed by James Wan. [1:40]
SEX/NUDITY 3 - A man accuses another man of having an extramarital affair and we see the man going into a hotel room where there is a woman who sits on the bed and begins to open her blouse. A man makes a comment about sex with multiple partners. We see a nude man a few times and his bare buttocks are evident. A couple of women are shown wearing low-cut tops that reveal cleavage.
VIOLENCE/GORE 10 - A man ties a shirt around his leg and begins sawing off his foot (we see the saw blade break the skin and see blood spray on him as he's sawing and screaming). A man pulls a man's leg causing him to fall to the floor, then punches him in the head, and then bashes him repeatedly on the head with a toilet lid (we hear crunching and see the victim with a very bloody head later). A woman, with bruises and cuts on her face and mouth, describes what happened to her while being held captive: she was strapped to a chair with a metal device clamped over her mouth (we learn that when the clamp would open it would tear off her jaw), she screamed and scrambled to get out of the chair, when she did a timer started, she was told to find a key in the stomach of her dead cellmate (he was not dead), she raised a knife over him as he regained consciousness, she stabbed him repeatedly (we hear squishing and crunching), and we see her holding a length of blood-soaked intestine, where she found a key and freed herself from the clamp. Two drills are started that approach the temples of a restrained man, one man tries to free him, he shoots the drill bits off, and another man holds a gun on the villain who slashes the man across the throat (blood spurts and the man gurgles and gasps); the first man chases the villain, shoots him in the back (he falls to the floor motionless) and as the man approaches the body he steps on a tripwire that causes several shotguns above him to fire, the man is hit (we see blood on his clothes, and hear him gasping) and slumps to the floor dead. We see a dead man hanging from and wrapped in razor wire, there are slashes and gashes all over his body and a puzzle piece shape has been cut out of his skin (we also hear a description and see a flashback of what happened to the man showing him scrambling to get through the razor wire and screaming in terror). We see a charred dead body, hear a description and see a flashback about what happened to him: we see the man slathered with a flammable paste, he must use a lighter to find clues and at one point the flame gets too close to him setting him on fire (we see the flames burst and hear him scream). Two men wrestle over a gun, one is punched and shoved against a fence, and the other is shot in the chest (he falls back onto the floor dead and we see blood on the wound). A man holds a gun to a woman's head, she wrestles him for the gun, gets it away, holds the gun on him, the man gets the gun back, the man and woman continue to wrestle over it, she stabs him in the leg with scissors, and another man comes into the room with a gun; the two men shoot back and forth at each other, one man hits the other on the head with a vase, one man runs out and races away in a car, and the other follows. A man shoots another man who is pleading for his life, he falls to the floor and we see a bloody wound on his shoulder. We see a dead man lying on a floor in a pool of blood with a large bloody wound on his head (he presumably shot himself in the head). A man is shocked with electricity through a chain on his foot (he convulses and foams at the mouth and then lies still; he comes to shortly thereafter). Two police officers walk through an abandoned mannequin factory with their guns drawn, they pull back a sheet and reveal a man strapped into a chair with two drills facing him on either side of his head. A man pretends to be poisoned, he gags and convulses and then falls still, and then the man is shocked with electricity through a chain attached to his foot. A man waves a gun around a woman and a little girl while he's listening to their heartbeats with a stethoscope, and they both scream and cry. A little girl's closet door opens slightly to reveal someone looking at her, the person comes out of the closet and stands over her, she screams, her mother comes in and fights with the person and we then see them both bound and gagged. A man walks through his darkened apartment using a camera flash to light his way, trying to find if there is someone there; he beats a doll that is laughing with a bat, he opens a closet and a person in a costume lunges at him (he's wearing an animal mask and a red robe). A person in a costume (in an animal mask and a red robe) approaches a man in a dark parking garage and then lunges at him while growling. A man chained to a pipe in a dark room is left presumably to die. A little girl wakes up and is frightened by noises in her room, and she tells her mother that there is a man in her room. A man panics when he sees a picture of his wife and daughter bound and gagged. We see a man unconscious in a tub of water, he wakes up in a panic, falls out of the tub, and stumbles around in the dark yelling in fear. A man with a shard of glass threatens to cut another man. A man screams uncontrollably and appears to be breaking down from the stress. Two men saw frantically at the chains on their feet. We hear the distorted voice of a man on a tape player telling two men that they might die and what acts of violence they must commit by a certain time in order to stay alive. A man puts his hand into a stagnant, slime-filled toilet and swishes it around looking for something. A man vomits after seeing a dead body. Two men are chained by their ankles to pipes in a room. A man talks about another man having poisoned blood.
LANGUAGE 7 - 28 F-words and its derivatives, 1 sexual reference, 13 scatological terms, 4 anatomical terms, 10 mild obscenities, 1 religious profanity, 6 religious exclamations.
SUBSTANCE USE - A man is shown smoking.
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Sadism, voyeurism, infidelity, marriage, lying, guilt, obsession, passion.
MESSAGE - People will do pretty much anything to stay alive.
CAVEATS
Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.
We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.
Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.
Saturday Night - 4.4.10
Piece by Piece - 1.2.3
Joker: Folie à Deux - 7.7.10
Monster Summer - 1.4.3
how to
support us
PLEASE DONATE
We are a totally independent website with no connections to political, religious or other groups & we neither solicit nor choose advertisers. You can help us keep our independence with a donation.
NO MORE ADS!
Become a member of our premium site for just $1/month & access advance reviews, without any ads, not a single one, ever. And you will be helping support our website & our efforts.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
We welcome suggestions & criticisms -- and we accept compliments too. While we read all emails & try to reply we don't always manage to do so; be assured that we will not share your e-mail address.
how to
support us
PLEASE DONATE
We are a totally independent website with no connections to political, religious or other groups & we neither solicit nor choose advertisers. You can help us keep our independence with a donation.
NO MORE ADS!
Become a member of our premium site for just $2/month & access advance reviews, without any ads, not a single one, ever. And you will be helping support our website & our efforts.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
We welcome suggestions & criticisms -- and we will accept compliments too. While we read all emails & try to reply we do not always manage to do so; be assured that we will not share your e-mail address.