The sound of Jigsaw's gravely voice pouring out of the tape recorder is still as ominous a sound as one could imagine, and the big reveals still come as a genuine shock.

| Oct 27, 2017

How such a cruelly empty and infantile movie got made is mystery enough. More puzzling is why Cary Elwes, Danny Glover and Monica Potter would sign on as co-stars.

| Oct 27, 2014

James Wan's horror film Saw is full of demented twists and guilty-looking actors, but the scenario is cruel enough to make you squirm.

| Oct 27, 2014

[A] contrived, unlovable gore-fest with a high-concept premise.

| Oct 27, 2014

There's something impressively loathsome and extravagantly twisted about this horror-thriller from first-timer James Wan.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 27, 2014

As a study in the macabre, it barely suffices; as a sick and bloody joke, it's bloody sick.

| Oct 27, 2014

Though dumber than a box of rocks, Saw forges ahead with the kind of conviction and energy that will keep bad-cinema junkies sitting bolt upright.

| Oct 27, 2014

[Its] sadism is topped only by its absurdity.

| Nov 15, 2011

More grisly than scary; not for kids.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Dec 28, 2010

Why see Saw? Because it has teeth and it cuts to the bone.

| Jun 24, 2006

As good an all-out, non-camp horror movie as we've had lately.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 1, 2006

Saw's overly elaborate, sporadically effective do-or-die games ultimately don't make the cut.

| May 4, 2005

Saw has art-house ambitions, but it's nothing but a glorified snuff film. I despised this movie.

Full Review | Nov 1, 2004

Saw has its moments, and most of them are brutal in the extreme, but ultimately it's one tremendous misfire that will either leave you laughing or, possibly, gagging.

| Original Score: 1.5/5 | Oct 31, 2004

So over the top that even the recruited audience of non-critics at my screening began to howl.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Oct 29, 2004

A strenuously morbid assembly of deranged-genius- serial-killer movie conventions cribbed from just about every popular post-Hannibal Lecter movie imaginable.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 29, 2004

The Internet film geeks are salivating over this one. But humans who live above ground, including horror fans, will find themselves only fitfully entertained and more consistently appalled.

| Oct 29, 2004

An ingenious machine for inducing terror, rage, and paralyzing unease.

| Oct 29, 2004

A sick, twisted, deliriously entertaining horror thriller that rivals The Texas Chainsaw Massacre for sheer, relentless intensity.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 29, 2004

Terrifying at some moments and insinuatingly creepy at many others.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 29, 2004