Tag line : Every piece has its puzzle

2 total strangers awake to find themselves chained up in a darkened room in an abandoned factory. On the floor in front of them lies a dead body and a set of instructions.

Unable to comprehend where they are or how they got there, they're alarmed to find the instructions left by their abductor informs them that one of them must kill the other before the night is over, otherwise they will both die as will their families, who are currently being held hostage.

Realising this is the work of a serial killer, known as the Jigsaw Killer, the two are left with the agonising decision as to whether one of them should die, or if they can work together to try and figure a way out.

Help is at hand though, as it seems the killer is himself being stalked by an ex-cop (played by Danny Glover) who wants revenge for the death of his partner, but is everything and everyone as it seems?

An exceptionally stylish and slick psychological thriller, with some neat surprise twists in it. This is a welcome change from the current tirade of remakes and sequels currently doing the rounds at the cinemas and I would recommend this to all discerning horror fans.

Overall Marks : 7/10.

Other Information.

• Alternate tag lines "Death is a shortcut", "Let the games begin!", "How much blood would you shed to stay alive?", "How do you solve a puzzle with pieces missing?", "Dare you see SAW?", "Their saw isn't there to cut their chains, they are there to cut their feet.", "Every puzzle has its pieces.".

• Leigh Whannel who plays Adam, one of the captives, was also the films scriptwriter.

• The films budget was a mere $1,200,000, it went onto gross over $55 million at the US box office alone.

• The dead body on the floor between the two men was actually an actor as they couldn't afford a realistic looking dummy.

• The film was originally intended as a direct-to-video release, but after receiving some very positive test screenings the distributors decided to release it theatrically.

• Cary Elwes, who plays Dr Gordon the other captive, is probably best known for his role as Westley in the fantasy pic "The Princess Bride". His other credits include Francis Ford Coppola's version of "Dracula", "Twister", "Shadow of the Vampire" and "Robin Hood Men in Tights" (that last one's a classic).

• The whole film was shot and edited in just 18 days, with the main scenes filmed in just 6.

• Danny Glover also played Detective Murtaugh in the "Lethal Weapon" films opposite Mel Gibson.

• There were no rehearsal takes, everything in the film was shot in one go.

• Director James Wan and Writer/Actor Leigh Whannell needed to do some reshoots, but the other actors were unavailable. So ended up having to play all the roles themselves and carefully shoot around their faces to disguise the fact it wasn't the same cast members for these scenes.

• The "Saw" puppet and the killers black gloves were a nod to the films of Italian director Dario Argento who used similar ideas in his 80's movies.

• The US release was toned down to achieve an R rating. The UK theatrical release was of the uncut version, however for the initial UK DVD release they used the cut US R rated version as they simply ported over the US DVD. The uncut version was later released separately.

Cast & Crew.

Theatrical trailer (1.44MB).

Buy the UK DVD (uncut).

Buy the UK DVD box-set (1-4)

Buy the US DVD (cut R-rated version).

Buy the US Blu-Ray (cut R-rated version).

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