If you don't know the name James Wan, you definitely have heard of his work. Born in Malaysia, but raised in Australia, Wan began his movie career at RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) where he met his screenwriting partner and best friend Leigh Whannell. They brainstormed many ideas, one of them involving a freaky doll saying "Wanna play a game?"
That idea manifested into Saw, a 2003 short film with Whannell acting in the lead role. It proved to be a underground success and the duo were offered a chance to make it a feature-length movie. In just 18 days of shooting and a very low budget, Saw premiered on October 29th, 2004 and became a Halloween hit.
Adam (Leigh Whannell) and Gordon (Cary Elwes).
Two men find themselves chained in an old bathroom: Adam Stanheight (Leigh Whannell) and Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes). A corpse lays in the middle of the floor, harboring a clue to their escape. Their captor reveals himself in the form of a puppet and lays down the twisted rules of the game. Failure to finish by six o'clock and they die. As Adam and Gordon try to survive they learn that neither of them are as innocent as they seem. Meanwhile, Detective David Tapp (Danny Glover) is on the trail of the notorious Jigsaw killer and a suspect (Micheal Emerson) conducting his own hostage plan.
Detectives Steven Sing (Kevin Leung) and David Tapp (Danny Glover).
This is the first time I sat through a Saw movie. I had heard of its reputation and the few clips I watched only lowered my expectations. To my surprise the movie was quite engaging. It plays out as a psychological thriller than a blood-and-guts fest. Gore there is, but is surprisingly restrained with the camera quickly cutting away from the violence. An effective approach to leave the gruesome outcome to the viewer's imagination.
Zepp Hindle (Micheal Emerson)
The psychotic Jigsaw cemented himself with Horror villains like Norman Bates and Michael Myers; average Joes with a monstrous mentality. He never hurts the innocent but goes after sinful people; his methods albeit distorted, are to teach his victims to value life by placing them in horrifying death traps. If they truly wish to live and change their spiteful ways, they must participate in whatever horrible test laid out for them. For such a provocative question, no one tries to counter Jigsaw's argument. It would have made for a gripping debate between the hero and villain, by showing that Jigsaw has no right to conduct these kidnappings regardless if he's right or not. Then the twist comes in and immediately brushes that off, leading to more sequels where evil triumphs. As Jigsaw says in the final scene, game over.
Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith) in a reverse bear trap.
Wan's signature trademarks begin to take shape. Water appearing in some sort of pivotal scene, the use of fast editing (speeding up a scene and quick cuts), the color red signifying the presence of evil, and having a creepy doll. The latter of the two have Billy meet the requirements as he became the mascot of the slasher series. Fun fact: the doll was hastily put together by Wan for the short film. Its cheap look proved to leave an impression that it was kept for the movie.
Billy
Around the time of Saw's release was the rise of "torture-porn," low-budget horror movies that emphasized on over-the-top gore. A type of filmmaking that began with splat-meisters Eli Roth and Rob Zombie and later solidified with Wan's first film. It lead to a new Saw movie every Halloween and the fad of gross-out Horror movies, each trying to out-squeamish the other. Wan has stated that he never intended this trend and expressed disappointment on how it affected the horror genre and the rest of the Saw movies. Whannell stuck around on writing the script for the next two installments (admits the movies should have stopped after Saw III) and Wan never directed another in the franchise but being the creators of this sanguinary serial, both remained as executive producers until the very end.
Jigsaw
Despite little interest on challenging the villain, Saw still makes for a nail-biting watch. For better or worse, Wan and Whannell were in the the big leagues and commissioned to work on their next movie. Since Saw had success with a creepy doll why not start there.......
Fishy Foreshadowing:
Use of water: Adam waking up in a bathtub and almost drowning.
Spoiler: The reason why its pivotal is because the key to his freedom literally goes down the drain as the movie starts. Even before the game begins, Adam's doom is sealed.
Behind-the-scenes:
James Wan and Cary Elwes
Leigh Whannell applying ketchup for his big scene
and James Wan holding the movie's title.
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