Opening

87% Star Trek Into Darkness May 16
24% Erased May 17
91% Frances Ha May 17
44% The English Teacher May 17
42% Black Rock May 17
77% Pieta May 17
—— Populaire May 17
21% 33 Postcards May 17

Top Box Office

78% Iron Man 3 $72.5M
50% The Great Gatsby $50.1M
47% Pain & Gain $5.0M
37% Peeples $4.6M
77% 42 $4.6M
56% Oblivion $4.1M
69% The Croods $3.6M
98% Mud $2.5M
8% The Big Wedding $2.5M
60% Oz the Great and Powerful $1.1M

Coming Soon

—— The Hangover Part III May 23
77% Fast & Furious 6 May 24
—— Epic May 24
94% Before Midnight May 24

Saw (2004)

tomatometer

48

Average Rating: 5.5/10
Reviews Counted: 168
Fresh: 80 | Rotten: 88

A twisted and gory horror film that's not for the squeamish.

31

Average Rating: 5/10
Critic Reviews: 35
Fresh: 11 | Rotten: 24

A twisted and gory horror film that's not for the squeamish.

audience

86

liked it
Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 766,585

My Rating

Movie Info

The directorial debut from filmmaker James Wan, this psychological thriller comes from the first screenplay by actor Leigh Whannell, who also stars. Whannell plays Adam, one of two men chained up in a mysterious chamber. The other, Dr. Gordon (Cary Elwes), like Adam, has no idea how either of them got there. Neither of them are led to feel optimistic by the man lying between them dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Together, Adam and Dr. Gordon attempt to piece together what has happened to

R,

Mystery & Suspense, Horror

Leigh Whannell

Feb 15, 2005

$55.2M

Lions Gate Films - Official Site External Icon

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Cast

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All Critics (168) | Top Critics (35) | Fresh (85) | Rotten (89) | DVD (36)

[Its] sadism is topped only by its absurdity.

November 15, 2011 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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

November 1, 2004 Full Review Source: Ebert & Roeper | Comments (24)
Ebert & Roeper
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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

October 29, 2004 Full Review Source: USA Today
USA Today
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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

October 29, 2004 Full Review Source: Toronto Star
Toronto Star
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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.

October 29, 2004 Full Review Source: Washington Post | Comment (1)
Washington Post
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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

October 29, 2004 Full Review Source: Slate
Slate
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Inventive and diverting entertainment for fans of moody horror mysteries. And the end is cool. Say no more.

November 15, 2011 Full Review Source: Film4
Film4

More grisly than scary; not for kids.

December 28, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comments (17)
Common Sense Media

The horror genre takes a new direction using extreme violence to support a surprisingly evocative story of redemptive torture.

October 31, 2009 Full Review Source: Cinema Sight
Cinema Sight

Gore, violence, an excellent script, and top notch tension all put together with a whopper of an ending.

April 29, 2009 Full Review Source: Cinema Crazed
Cinema Crazed

Having lifted itself up so high in some ways, it's a shame that, in the end, the film sinks down to the level of just being another dumb horror movie.

January 20, 2009 Full Review Source: ESplatter | Comments (5)
ESplatter

It's a brutal, vicious, well done psychological thriller that will leave you disturbed for days.

November 20, 2008 Full Review Source: Hollywood.com
Hollywood.com

The inconsistencies and incongruities mar the overall result, but it's a fierce enough premise to excite some investors to believe this team can do better and perhaps even bloodier.

October 18, 2008 Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile
Urban Cinefile

The setup is gripping, and the suspense intense, but the third act -- the payoff for sitting through such harrowing material -- is a major misfire.

August 7, 2008 Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review
Sacramento News & Review

we all need more Glover in our lives

July 5, 2008 | Comments (2)

Effectively ugly.

December 27, 2007 Full Review Source: Big Picture Big Sound | Comment (1)
Big Picture Big Sound

There is such a storm of terrible dialogue in Saw as to legitimately draw comparisons to none less than Ed Wood.

September 27, 2007 Full Review Source: Antagony & Ecstasy | Comments (4)
Antagony & Ecstasy

Saw gets by on its mood of industrial dread.

August 18, 2007 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com
eFilmCritic.com

While the great idea gets squandered, it remains a fun flick, certainly above the par of many other genre films.

June 21, 2007 Full Review Source: Film Scouts
Film Scouts

Able to hold interest most of the way through, unraveling back stories that feel as if they might lead to something. But then the ending arrives.

April 20, 2006 Full Review Source: Window to the Movies
Window to the Movies

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

April 1, 2006 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | Comment (1)
Empire Magazine

Without question this is (pardon the bad pun) the long awaited missing piece of the puzzle for Saw fans everywhere.

February 1, 2006 Full Review Source: Dread Central

Audience Reviews for Saw

not a fan of the gore fest horror films that this movie started generating but this was a decent movie. The twist to me was slightly unrealistic as how could a man alive lay there that long and not move once or show breathing . . .
June 29, 2008
jmanard52

Super Reviewer

A gritty, dirty, and intense horror movie with superb acting from Whannel and Elwes. This movie gets a lot of bad rep for ceaseless violence and excessive gore, it gets unfairly coupled with "Hostel" in this aspect. This is one of the better horror films of the 00's, with a twist ending that will knock you out cold. The score is also one of the better scores I've heard, amping up the intensity (especially in the final act) to an almost unbearable degree.
July 20, 2007
Dan Schultz

Super Reviewer

    1. John/Jigsaw: Yes officer, I'm sick. Sick from the disease eating away at me from the inside, sick of people who don't appreciate their blessing, sick of those who scoff at the suffering of others. I'm sick of it all!
    – Submitted by Micah K (4 months ago)
    1. Dr. Lawrence Gordon: I did not cheat on her!
    2. Adam: What do you care what I think anyway? I don't give a crap if you covered yourself in peanut butter and had a 15-hooker gang bang!
    – Submitted by Dae'lon S (6 months ago)
    1. Adam: I just a-shit ma pants!
    – Submitted by Brandon S (6 months ago)
    1. Adam: I went back to my shit hole apartment, and woke up in an actual shit hole.
    – Submitted by Brendan C (7 months ago)
    1. Adam: My last girlfriend was a feminist, vegan punk who broke up with me because she thought I was too angry.
    – Submitted by Paula W (7 months ago)
    1. John/Jigsaw: Rise and shine, Adam. You're probably wondering where you are. I'll tell you where you might be. You might be in the room that you die in. Up until now, you've simply sat in the shadows watching others live out their lives. But what do voyeurs see when they look into the mirror? Now I see you as a strange mix of someone angry, yet apathetic. But mostly just pathetic. So are you going to watch yourself die here today, Adam, or do something about it?
    2. Adam: I don't get it.
    – Submitted by Paula W (7 months ago)

Discussion Forum

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Foreign Titles

  • Saw - Wessen Blut wird fließen? (DE)
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