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Year One
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Saw
EMAILPRINTLions Gate Films Inc.

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 32 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 152 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Horror | Suspense/Thriller
Written by:
Leigh Whannell (also story)
James Wan (story)
Directed by: James Wan
Release Date:
Theatrical: October 29, 2004
DVD: February 15, 2005
Running Time: 100 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for strong grisly violence and language
Starring Leigh Whannell, Cary Elwes, Monica Potter, Danny Glover, Ken Leung, Dina Meyer, Tobin Bell, and Michael Emerson
Obsessed with teaching his victims the value of life, a deranged, sadistic serial killer is abducting morally wayward people and forcing them to play horrific games for their own survival. Faced with impossible choices, each victim must struggle to win back his/her life, or else die trying. (Lions Gate Films)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Death Sentence Saw II Saw III Saw IV Saw V Saw VI
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Film Threat Heidi Martinuzzi
May be the best independent horror film to have come out since "The Blair Witch Project." It's certainly better than "Blair Witch", and more fun, more gruesome, and more macabre. In a very delightful way.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
The filmmakers piece it together with almost clockwork perfection and deliver it with masterful misdirection, creating the most ingenious, eccentric and brazenly jaundiced psycho-thriller to come along in years.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Robert K. Elder
Wan's tense, grisly cinematic morsel won't go down easy. But once it hits bottom, Saw is oddly satisfying, though the gag reflex never entirely goes away.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Carla Meyer
The slasher scenes, though relatively few, are amazingly evocative for such a low-budget movie.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Horror fans will find plenty to shriek about. Everyone else should keep their distance.
Read Full Review >Slate David Edelstein
Less a classical narrative than an ingenious machine for inducing terror, rage, and paralyzing unease.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck
Boasts an undeniably original premise and clever plot machinations that lift it several notches above the usual slasher film level.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Saw is a gristle-cut B psycho thriller that would like to tap the sickest corners of your imagination. It has a few moments of nightmare creepiness, but it's also derivative and messy and too nonsensical for its own good.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson
It's brutal horror, where anyone can die at any time, and gorehounds will love it. Average folks may find it too intense.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
Does a better-than-average job of conveying the panic and helplessness of men terrorized by a sadist in a degrading environment, but it is still not especially scary.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano
Saw is so full of twists it ends up getting snarled. For all of his flashy engineering and inventive torture scenarios, the Jigsaw Killer comes across as an amateur. Hannibal Lecter would have him for lunch.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Leah McLaren
Let's just say this: It's a lucky thing I wasn't shackled to my seat in the theatre during this movie. I'd be limping home.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
As long as Saw stays in that big, nasty bathroom, all we need to believe is the knot in our stomachs.
Read Full Review >Premiere Aaron Hillis
Spoiled by its own insatiable desire for envelope-pushing flair; its wider-scoped when it should be intimate, splashy instead of subtle, icky but not scary.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Wan's debut feature is a twisted, squirm-inducingly nasty bit of work, which isn't a criticism because that's exactly what he and cowriter Leigh Whannell had in mind.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
An efficiently made thriller, cheerfully gruesome, and finally not quite worth the ordeal it puts us through.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer David Hiltbrand
The film is a squeamish exercise, like watching a cruel child pull the wings off flies - especially the climactic scene, which is so gory it would turn a coyote's stomach.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Mark Holcomb
With its toilet-bobbing and blood spurting and Elwes's fey, Vincent Pricelike mugging, Saw succeeds in capturing something like Takashi Miike by way of William Castle. Happy Halloween, indeed.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Kim Morgan
A story that's so ridiculous you'll at least be entertained by the outrageous plot contortions to come.
Read Full Review >USA Today Mike Clark
Becomes exceedingly disgusting when it wallows in the psychological torture of a child, a no-no under any circumstances.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell
What makes Saw so awful is that it starts with a clever premise and then completely blows it.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
Saw has its moments, and most of them are brutal in the extreme, but ultimately it's one tremendous misfire that will either leave you laughing or, possibly, gagging. Not what I'd call a winning combination.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
But humans who live above ground, including horror fans, will find themselves only fitfully entertained and more consistently appalled.
Read Full Review >Variety Dennis Harvey
A crude concoction sewn together from the severed parts of prior horror/serial killer pics.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
Though dumber than a box of rocks, Saw forges ahead with the kind of conviction and energy that will keep bad-cinema junkies sitting bolt upright.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Where "Seven" seemed to radiate diabolical evil, Saw just radiates idiocy.
Read Full Review >New York Post V.A. Musetto
Promoted as "the year's scariest movie," it's anything but.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
Sicko horror film from Australia, whose sadism is topped only by its absurdity.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 6.5 (out of 10) based on 152 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
zac h gave it a0:
Stupid pointless and sickening eben though all th Saw movies have awesome endings.
James K gave it a6:
The only movie in the series worth a touch, but even then there are better horror movies out there.
max j gave it a9:
I got so gripped and so excited and intrested and scared and spooked and grossed out and that's good. Amanda is easily the best character design ever. and it's so flippin scary
Chris G gave it a3:
After years of ignoring this series due to it being a poorly reviewed horror series I was finally persuaded by a friend to check it out. I found it to be a disgusting exercise in torture porn with a somewhat original premises. None of the performances are special, and there isn't much in the way of thrills. The story is a mess. There is a market for this stuff I guess, and it's definitely not me.
Eric K gave it a10:
A film that wraps up so perfectly that you may feel a shiver run down your back as the ending unfolds.
Todd S gave it an8:
If you are into psychological horrors, this might be the movie for you.
Eddie D gave it a5:
No Saw movie can be a Saw movie unless you include the rest of the series. Very clever movie, but many weak spots and bad acting. But I will admit that I was into this series for a while. But one day I opened my eyes, and said "What the fcuk am I doing??"
