老朽化したバスルームで対角線上に倒れていたふたりの男ゴードンとアダム。その間には自殺死体が。足を鎖でつながれた男たちに与えられたのは、テープレコーダー、一発の弾、タバコ2本、着信用携帯電話、2本のノコギリ。犯人から告げられたメッセージは「6時間以内に相手を殺すか、自分が死ぬか」。犯人は警察に追われている連続殺人鬼ジグゾウだった。
製作費: $1,200,000 (2億円)
興行収入: $104,045,735 (156億円)
推定収支: $102,845,735 (154億円)
※製作費・興行収入はTMDBのデータを参照しています。収支は(興行収入 - 製作費)で算出したFindKey独自の推定値であり、広告宣伝費や諸経費は含まれません (1ドル=150円換算)。
監督: ジェームズ・ワン
脚本: Leigh Whannell / ジェームズ・ワン
音楽: Charlie Clouser
制作: Gregg Hoffman / Oren Koules / Mark Burg
撮影監督: David A. Armstrong
制作会社: Twisted Pictures / Evolution Entertainment / Saw Productions Inc.
Though I tend to go for both older films (those made before 1970) and especially so when it comes to the horror/thriller genre, I saw parts 3 and 5 upon theatrical release (yes, I know it's really not right to see film series out of sequence but I simply don't care) and they were intriguing and decent, don't ask me why. Now that I both date a horror film aficionado and my 13-year-old son himself is one as well, I have decided to check out the contemporarily well-received original (I may decide now to see the entire series, and in order, but really who's to say?). Instantly, such trusted, bankable actors as Cary Elwes and Danny Glover give it credibility, just as Bette Davis and Joan Crawford gave such films as 'What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?' way back in days gone by. This was much better than I felt parts 3 and 5 were, by the way.
With no obvious connection between them, two men awaken to find themselves chained to the plumbing at opposite ends of a room. "Adam" (Leigh Whannell) is a photographer, the other is "Lawrence" (Cary Elwes), a doctor. Each have a micro-tape in their pocket and the only tape player in the room is nestled neatly in the hands of a corpse situated on the centre of the floor. A bit of ingenuity is needed to obtain the kit to play the tape and hopefully get some clue as to why there are there. Suffice to say that they do not like what they hear, and with the clock ticking they will have to learn to trust each other whilst having quite a sword of Damocles hanging over their heads. Meantime, the police (Danny Glover) are interviewing a woman who might have managed to escape from a similarly orchestrated predicament. Might there be any way that she could help track down this devious mastermind who doesn't ever actually do any of his own killing - he just manipulates with astonishing purpose. Elwes and Whannell (who also wrote this) both deliver really quite strongly here as does their claustrophobic and distinctly unsanitary prison environment as the story tells us via contemporaneous and flashback imagery a little of their stories and of just why they have attracted the attention of this vengeful "jigsaw killer". It's not especially graphic, this film, though there is a fair smattering of gore - it's the psychology that helps it to deliver better. There's always that element of what might we do to survive, or - maybe more apposite - what might we be prepared to do to others. The writing also helps it along with the exasperation of all well exemplified without just resorting to loud voices and expletives. In the end, I found that I did actually care what happened to these men - but with the clock against them, what are their chances? It's tense and compelling and reminded me a little of "Se7en" (1995).
