It's Fun To See Saw

Ah yes ... the weekend approacheth. Friday neareth. Bliss! Which reminds me, I never posted my review of last week's movie fare, Saw.

This one I had to go see by myself. My wife is not up for scary movies in general, and this one in particular since it looks pretty warped from the previews. Even my dear sister, who likes scary movies, and said she'd go see it with me the day after Thanksgiving, backed out once she read the description of the movie. So the night I went to see Saw (I just love saying I went to "see Saw") my sister and my wife paired up with each other and saw that dreadfully awful looking Bridget Jones movie. Whew! Lucked out on that one! (BTW: My wife's succinct review was that it was "so-so").

So, it's about 10:30 at night. I'm ready to be creeped out. The lights dim, the film begins to roll ... and I find myself watching the beginning of quite possibly the scariest movie ever ... SpongeBob Squarepants! Now I'm no Spongebob hata', but that wasn't quite what I signed up for. The other people in the theater began to riot. They were yelling and screaming while throwing Skittles, popcorn, and Molatov cocktails. (OK, I exaggerated ... there were no Skittles). Within a few minutes, they got the correct film loaded into the projector and the movie began. Well, no, actually it didn't. Another 15 minutes of previews began. Previews which seemed to be, strangely, targeted at a completely different audience (read: mentally disturbed individuals) than the first set of previews I sat through.

So finally the movie begins. Two guys wake up in a large, extremely nasty looking basement bathroom. They don't know each other, or remember how they got there. They are securely chained to some big steel pipes. There is a body laying in the middle of the room, covered with blood, holding a gun. There is a tape recorder on the floor, and the two people who are still alive (for the moment) both have tapes. The tapes contain a thoughfully individualized pre-recorded message for each of them. One of the guy's messages states that he has to kill the second guy by 6pm, or the first guy's wife and daughter will be killed. Oh yeah, and one other little detail. Both guys have a hacksaw with a dull blade, which barely even scratches the chains which are confining them. But, one of the characters quickly surmises, the hacksaw would be able to cut through flesh and bone. So they could escape if they really, really, really, really wanted to. And didn't mind limping. And bleeding. A lot. Oh, and it's just a guess, but I think the title of the movie just might, possibly, be connected to that little aspect of the scenario.

Now, I like scary movies. I'm not particularly a fan of extremely gory, graphically violent movies, but I do like weird, scary ones. This one did sound pretty bad from the synopsis, and yet that whole scenario with the saw simply fascinated me. Kind of like that guy in Colorado. What would you do?

Well, it turned out to be a pretty decent movie. There certainly were some graphic scenes (surprise!) but it wasn't as though it was a non-stop gore-fest. There did happen to be a serial killer involved. But mostly it was focused on the characters trying to figure out how they got there, figure out who might be responsible for their plight, and how they might escape. Hopefully without having to cut off anything important.

I don't want to give away the ending but I will say that there is a nice, unexpected plot twist. Actually there were at least two. I certainly wouldn't rate this a 5-star movie (well, unless maybe it's on a 10-star scale) but it was quite enjoyable for what it was -- a scary movie. Probably not up for consideration by the Academy, but I had a good time. If you like scary movies (and are somewhat deranged) you will probably enjoy this one.