Blair Loveday
Saw is one of the best thriller movies I think I have ever seen.
The ending and creativity has stuck in my mind for years. Then the movies got gorier and well, less excellent. And yet Saw has been excellent every time I have watched it. So now I wanted to check it out on 4K to see if it’s the best way to watch.
If somehow you haven’t seen Saw, let me tell you what you have been missing.
Two men wake up in a dingy bathroom chained to the wall, they don’t know how or why they got there. They start unpicking the puzzle to get themselves free, when they discover that the hacksaws they have found isn’t for the chains. It is for their feet. Don’t worry, not a major spoiler, was in every trailer when the movie came out. The movie also has an intricate situation going on outside relating to these two men.
Through a side story we discover the Jigsaw killer has been doing intricate killings where he puts people in situations where they have to sacrifice a lot to live. If they do, they get to go free with a new appreciation for life. Not many manage to survive.
Even on what must be my 20th watch of this, I am still blown away by how well this movie is written and made. The intrigue and plot lines are so well crafted, and while there is gore, it isn’t over the top. It’s just enough to make you uncomfortable, but not generally that graphic.
The 4K mastering in this edition is excellent. Given the low budget nature of the movie I wasn’t expecting they could do much, but it looks much cleaner and crisper than the standard Bluray. There is also a more recent special feature which is also on the blu-ray disc with the creators and cast looking back on what they achieved.
The Bluray disc also comes with an absolute stack of older special features including heaps of behind the scenes stuff. When you watch those again and compare it to the newer features, it is interesting to see how they feel now that a lot of time has passed. It’s not very often I watch every special feature on a disc, but the backstory of how it got made is really fascinating.
Best of all, despite having seen this movie far too many times, I had never seen the Saw short film. As part of trying to justify its creation, the young writer and director made a short film. Here Leigh Whannell, who is the writer and one of the stars of the film, is in the reverse bear trap. It is pretty close to what winds up being in the actual movie, but with an interesting different take on the police interactions.
Saw is as excellent of a movie now as it was 20 years ago.
Thanks to the low budget nature of the movie, the forced need for practical effects makes the movie stand up in every possible way. And this collection is the best way to watch it that I have found!
