Product Details

• Actors: Cary Elwes, Leigh Whannell, Danny Glover, Ken Leung, Dina Meyer
• Directors: James Wan
• Writers: Leigh Whannell, James Wan
• Producers: Daniel J. Heffner, Gregg Hoffman, Jason Constantine, Lark Bernini, Mark Burg
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC, Special Edition, Widescreen
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1 EX), English (Dolby Digital 6.1 EX)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Lions Gate
• DVD Release Date: October 18, 2005
• Run Time: 103 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (631 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000AMWIVM
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #52,310 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "Saw - Unrated (Two-Disc Special Edition)" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Saw opens with a gruesome scenario: Two men are chained to the walls of a grimy bathroom with a bloody corpse lying on the floor between them. Tape recordings tell them that one of the men has to kill the other, or his wife and child will die. The corpse is holding a gun in one hand, but it's out of reach...but whoever has locked these two up has thoughtfully provided a hacksaw that can't cut through the heavy chain, but might cut through a little flesh and bone. From there, Saw jumps back and forth as the two men slowly unravel how they know each other and that their tormentor is one of those all-knowing, all-capable serial killers (it goes without saying that Saw is hugely influenced by Seven and the movies of Dario Argento), a fellow known as Jigsaw who disguises his voice and lets a creepy puppet (lifted almost directly from the eccentric animations of the Brothers Quay) be his visual representative. But imitation isn't inherently bad; what puts Saw ahead of its horror compatriots is a gleeful enthusiasm that a dozen sequels to Halloween couldn't muster. Saw has problems--it's clumsily overwritten (every detail of what's going on, no matter how visually evident, will be explained by the characters); most of the situations are static and implausible; and though the cast includes talented veterans like Cary Elwes (The Princess Bride) and Danny Glover (Lethal Weapon), the acting has the depth of a puddle. The rapid pace and frequently frenzied camerawork keep things in motion and while the philosophical underpinnings of Jigsaw won't challenge Hegel or Schopenhauer, they do offer more food for thought than most contemporary horror. Discriminating fans of the genre who like their gore with a glimmer of an idea will embrace Saw.

The Uncut Edition differs only slightly from the theatrical release; it reinserts a little more gore that was cut to get an R rating and tightens up the editing (the uncut version is actually a teensy bit shorter than the theatrical release). The extras are plentiful (if a bit thin): Two audio commentaries (one by director James Wan, screenwriter/actor Leigh Whannel, and Elwes), one by the producers--thankfully, no one takes themselves too seriously. Also included are a trio of typically self-congratulatory making-of featurettes ("He was amazing to work with" etc.), an animated storyboard of a sequence they couldn't afford to shoot, a DVD-ROM game in which you can construct your own puppet, a couple of self-mocking Easter Eggs, and lots of promotional stuff for Saw II. There's a very curious faux-news show purporting to be an investigation of the "real" Jigsaw, which uses clips from the movie as if they were documentary footage--it's hard to say whether this is a misguided attempt to make the movie seem creepier or a bit of flimsy humor. Most fans will find the regular DVD release satisfactory; this special edition is largely for hardcore enthusiasts. --Bret Fetzer

Product Description

Danny Glover, Cary Elwes, Leigh Whannell. The horrifying tale of a serial killer whose deranged MO is to have his victims play sadistic survival-type games-that is, to kill each other or die trying-in order to teach them the real value of life. 2004/color/100 min/R.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

78 of 100 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars The "Jigsaw Killer" plays another bloody little game November 17, 2004

By Lawrance M. Bernabo HALL OF FAMETOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

When I went to go see "Saw" late last night I was thinking "saw" as the past tense of see and not "saw" as the noun ("a hand or power tool or a machine used to cut hard material and equipped usually with a toothed blade or disk") or as the verb ("to cut with a saw"). What was I thinking? "Saw" is in the Grand Guignol of "Seven" and "The Bone Cutter," and apparently had to make some last minute cuts to avoid getting saddled with a NC-17 rating. That alone with give you an indication of what first time director James Wan and first time writer Leigh Whannell were going for in "Saw," even with only $1.2 million to make the film and 18 days to shoot it.

Adam (Leigh Whannell), a young man, wakes up underwater in a dark room with a chain around his ankle. He is not alone, and when the light come on he finds himself is what appears to be a long abandoned public restroom. At the other end is Lawrence (Cary Elwes), who is also chained to a pipe. On the floor in between them, out of their reach, is the corpse of a man who apparently killed himself with a gun. In his hand is a tape recorder. After becoming oriented to his strange surroundings, Adam discovers a plastic bag in his pocket, containing an envelope. Inside is a key and a small cassette tape with the words "Play Me." Let the game begin.

Beyond that you really do not want to know that much about this before you see it, and given the dreck that passes for horror thrillers in recent years "Saw" is worth the seeing in the theater. The last time I actually went to see a film in this genre in a theater was probably "Hannibal," and I have not had any reason to regret being selective in this regard. However, this is not going to be a date movie, but one for hardcore fans of the genre who prefer their DVD editions to be the director's unrated cut of the film. "Saw" is a film that works more in the world of horror films than it does in the real world, but that is certainly part for the genre at this point.

The entire film does not take place in the abandoned restroom, although that is main arena. Lawrence knows something about the "Jigsaw Killer," who has been constructing elaborate dances of death in which his victims have to try and save themselves. Only one victim has survived to date (Shawnee Smith), so it is possible to get out of this alive, just extremely difficult and we are treated to a couple of examples of where it did not go as well. Investigating the case are a couple of detectives, Tapp (Danny Glover) and Sing (Ken Leung), and the chronology of the film gets skewed as the present and the past become confused. The game also involves more than the two men chained to the wall, because Lawrence's wife, Alison (Monica Potter) and daughter, Diana (Makenzie Vega) are part of it as well.

During the film's endgame things are moving fast enough that you probably will not be able to figure out how it will all play out even though "Saw" overplays the obvious red herring card. The film pushes one of my least favorite buttons a couple of time, which is when somebody has a gun on the villain and does not blow them away. If there is one thing we have learned from all of these movies it is that hesitating when you have the bad guy in your sights is never a good thing. I especially go through the roof when a trained law enforcement officer is pointing the gun right at the killer and the killer still gets away (even Clarice Starling is guilty of this sin in "The Silence of the Lambs"). So there is some heavy handedness to Whannell's script that hopefully will be replaced by something more elegant when he and Wan make their recently announced "Saw 2" sequel for 2005.

But "Saw" is not an elegant horror film, although Wan gets points for keeping the most horrific moment of the film off screen (even though the rationale is small budget and not true aesthetic choice, which makes me fearful for what will happen when Wan and Whannell have a much bigger budget for the sequel). The "Jigsaw Killer" has a warped interest in having his victims better appreciate their lives, so getting out alive has to do not only with Lawrence and Adam solving the tasks they are given, but also with finding out some important things about each other. The important thing here is that the film's final scene is pretty horrific, even if the film cheats a bit to get to that point, and that even when the screen goes dark and the credits start to roll, Whannell keeps the horror going.

18 of 22 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Believe the hype August 15, 2004

By M. D Sadowsky

I'm a hard sell when it comes to horror/thriller type of flicks (even though I was pretty surprised on how much I enjoyed the 2003 version of 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre'). And aside from 'Kill Bill' (1 or 2), I cannot remember the last time I was genuinely excited to see an upcoming movie - oh yeah, I can, 'Return of the Jedi' - OK then, so that puts this in perspective.

The clever thing about 'Saw', is its primal simplicity in explaining the human condition. That is, when push comes to shove, a person will do some unsettling things to stay alive (remember that poor SOB that was caught under a boulder in the Rockies a couple winters ago - and had to cut off his own arm with a friggin' credit card to free himself?!). Now imagine you're in a similar siutation, BUT, you don't have to cut your own arm off - just some stranger. The bitter pill goes down a little easier, huh?

'Saw' if nothing else, is simple and unapologetic - and well it should be. 3 hour bio-pics like 'Ghandi' and 'Braveheart' need 20 richly developed characters and $100 million budgets - not horror movies. Besides, a lot of great flicks have ridiculously pedestrian plot lines (remember 'Speed'?). Moreover, if you took at least one social science class at college, 'Saw' is basically a grizzly 90+ minute version of Maslow's Experiment or the Prisoner's Dilemma (you may have to crack open a textbook to cite the reference).

Brass Tax folks - you WILL say to yourself during the movie, "She's not gonna do what I think she's gonna do?"; or "Please, don't tell me what I think is coming next, is actually coming next!". Either way, do yourself a favor and see it in the theater because 1) It may become a classic on the sub-genre; or better yet 2) It'll become a big cult film - and you'll earn bragging rights, 'cause you saw it BEFORE the hype.

86 of 114 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Beast is Disease, blood is merely a symptom March 1, 2005

By Schtinky VINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

With some of the PG-13 tripe coming out as horror nowadays, SAW is a refreshing step back into the good old days where horror meant blood, and blood meant horror. No annoying harpies or pretty pictures of hell or tragically humanized vampires here, just an ingenious killer with an obscure motive.

SAW dives right into the depths of the madness too, opening with our killer's current victims, two men chained on opposite ends of a filthy restroom, a body in the center clutching a cassette player and a handgun. Each man is given a tape to play, which provides him with a nice dilemma to ponder during his captivity. The background of the killer and the events leading up to the men's current situation unfolds nicely during narrated recollections and well-placed flashbacks, while the actual motive stays hidden underneath the obvious delight the killer derives from the simple pleasures of torture.

Because SAW also brings to film an excellent `Whodunnit?', I am not going to elaborate on the storyline any further. Suffice to say that Cary Elwes and Danny Glover give excellent performances (Elwes surprising me since I have only seen him in comedy roles), the photography is good, the killing methods tasty, the blood not really overdone but still dosed out well, and the plot sustainable.

Lets face it fans, we don't go to horror movies to learn how to do decoupage, we go to get scared and grossed out. SAW fulfills that primal hankering, leaving you to utter `blech' and `bravo' in the same troubled breath, and wondering what your punishment would be like under the careful ministrations of this psychopath.

Aficionados of the genre are going to love SAW's mixture of gore, insanity, ingenious traps, and filth, while non-lover's of the theme should stick to `Sleepless In Seattle' and other such ilk. SAW put the taste of terror and gore back in my mouth, something that has been lacking in some of the recent sugar-coated intruders into this bloody domain. Enjoy!!