Saw (2004) Movie Review

Somehow, I don't see the Betty Ford clinic adopting Jigsaw's methods for "curing" drug addicts. When Saw hit theaters in 2004, few predicted it would ignite one of the defining horror franchises of the 21st century. Yet within a few short years, Saw had staked its claim on Halloween, launching an annual tradition of increasingly elaborate traps and moral games. It all begins with Cary Elwes and Leigh Whannell waking up chained in a filthy bathroom, given a simple but impossible choice: one must kill the other to survive. With Danny Glover, Monica Potter, Michael Emerson, and Shawnee Smith rounding out the cast, the film blends low-budget ingenuity with psychological cruelty. Does Saw earn its reputation as the modern standard-bearer for horror, or was its success more about shock than substance? Our hosts dissect the twists, the traps, and whether this first game still cuts as deep now, as they cut into Now Playing Podcast's Saw retrospective series!