SAW

I had heard about this movie for a few months before it came out. It had been built up as the sickest, most disturbing horror movie ever. I was very excited because I feel horror movies have gone way downhill since the 80s. Granted, I was only 10 or so at the time, but I remember being scared crazy by the newspaper ads for Halloween (The night HE came home) and all of those flicks. I remember renting I Spit On Your Grave with Josh Manning and watching the whole thing with absolute horror and disgust. In Middle School my friend Rob rented the original Friday the 13th and I slept over afterwards. I distinctly remember lying awake in a sleeping bag on his floor all night.

I know loads of people hated it, but the last time a movie really creeped me out even close to that was The Blar Witch Project. I had read that Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses was supposed to be a throwback to the kind of horror I remember, but when it came out I'd read a lot about how dumb it was, so I never saw it. The new remake of Dawn Of The Dead was a good flick, but it was too "rock and roll" for me. What I mean is that the film gets you pumped up, like zombies are cool and this whole "end of the world" thing is just a music video. There was no emotional depth. The original Dawn and Day of the Dead movies stand out as gore-fest classics.

Anyway, I had heard Saw was gonna make sure I don't sleep, so I was excited. Then I found out Cary Elwes is the star. He was the star of such frightmares as The Princess Bride and Robin Hood: Men In Tights. With a determination to keep an open horror mind, I went.

The first half was very promising. Even though it reminded me too much of SE7EN, it was very creepy and sick. When I say "sick," I mean that it was disturbing to think of someone coming up with these abominable ways of killing people. The deaths were horrible to imagine, and the film takes your brain into this dark, smelly place for a while.

The basic premise is this: Two men wake up in some kind of giant basement bathroom. They are chained to the walls and there is a dead man between them. A tape recording tells one of the men to kill the other one, or else they'll both die, as will the man's family. It's an exciting premise and could have been a real gritty thrill ride. Unfortunately, there are too many "rock and roll" moments. I wish they'd simply played it cool and simple with no crazy camera moves and editing tricks to keep your interest.

Don't get me wrong, the movie was sick and disturbing and shocking, But it had the potential to be so much more. I have a major problem with a part of the story, but I don't want to spoil it for you.

One thing that stuck out in my mind was the presence of Danny Glover. He plays a cop. It was just too close to Lethal Weapon for me to take him seriously. It also got me thinking about how Mel Gibson went from Lethal Weapon to Passion of the Christ and Danny Glover went to Saw. I thought how different their paths went and then kind of realized that, no...not really. They both made exploitative horror movies meant to smack you around, emotionally.

But the best part of seeing this movie was telling people, "I'm gonna see Saw" and "I just saw Saw". Hee Hee!