by Zach Harms, MoreHorror.com

Thinking back to the first trailers for the film Saw, I remember one thing: Jigsaw’s puppet, “Billy” on a television, and how that demented clown face stuck in my young mind as terrifying. While many horror fans will eventually come to regard the Saw series as overdone, convoluted, and unnecessary, I feel that any horror fan can appreciate the original film for what it offers.

The core of the plot centers around two men, who until now didn’t even know the other existed supposedly, chained by the ankle in a decrepit bathroom, and lying dead in the center of the room: a corpse with an apparently self inflicted gunshot wound to the head. The two men learn that they are the latest in a series of victims of the Jigsaw Killer, a man who we will later learn puts people who take their life for granted to “tests”, the majority of whom have failed.

Examples of these “tests” are shown throughout the film are not limited too: a man clawing his way throw razor wire, stepping barefoot on shards of glass and a bear trap for your head. We quickly learn that this test, Dr Lawrence Gordon while chained in the bathroom, must kill his companion on the opposite side of the room: Adam. Failure to do so in under a couple of hours will result in his family’s death, as well as Jigsaw leaving them in that bathroom “to rot”.

The Saw films will eventually become notorious for having endings that surprise the audience, so I’ll stop with the plot details there. Suffice it to say the movie itself in its time took measures previously unseen in mainstream horror. Scenes of grisly torture and gore make this something that at the time, was new and still, for me at least, held onto it’s shock value. My reaction at the end of this first film was amazement; I felt I had seen one of the better horror movies of my time.

While this film may not have a huge appeal to mass audiences because of where the series eventually turned, there are many different types of fans who can enjoy this: general horror fans, people who like blood and guts, and even people who enjoy “B films”, as this movie was made with a lower budget, and relies on the few characters to develop the plot. (One fun fact: This entire film was shot in 18 days).

People who enjoy gore, good story, or are even just a fan of movies that’ll make you think twice about what just happened will be able to enjoy this film, as you can really see so many different elements that just make it great.