Saw

"How much blood would you shed to stay alive?"

2004 1h 43m EN

👍

7.4

SOLID

🥫

50%

ROTTEN

😬

METACRITIC

⭐

7.6

IMDB

★7.4TMDB · 10,388🥫50%Rotten Tomatoes●46Metacritic★7.6IMDB · 508,842

HorrorMysteryCrime

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Two men wake up to find themselves shackled in a grimy, abandoned bathroom. As they struggle to comprehend their predicament, they discover a disturbing tape left behind by the sadistic mastermind known as Jigsaw. With a chilling voice and cryptic instructions, Jigsaw informs them that they must partake in a gruesome game in order to secure their freedom.

“How much blood would you shed to stay alive?”

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Cast

Leigh Whannell
Adam
Cary Elwes
Lawrence Gordon
Tobin Bell
Jigsaw
Danny Glover
David Tapp
Ken Leung
Steven Sing
Dina Meyer
Kerry
Mike Butters
Paul
Paul Gutrecht
Mark

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: James Wan
Writers: Leigh Whannell, James Wan, Leigh Whannell
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $1.2M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Grossed $104M — a 86.7× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 22 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "Saw Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by James Wan, shot by David A. Armstrong. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Charlie Clouser. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Kevin Greutert shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Leigh Whannell and Cary Elwes and Tobin Bell carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

James Wan directs. David A. Armstrong behind the camera. Charlie Clouser scores. Kevin Greutert cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $1.2M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
2Grossed $104M — a 86.7× return. The kind of profit studios chase for a decade.
3Released 22 years ago.
4Part of the "Saw Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
5Directed by James Wan, shot by David A. Armstrong. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Charlie Clouser. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Kevin Greutert shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Leigh Whannell and Cary Elwes and Tobin Bell carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "How much blood would you shed to stay alive?".
10IMDB entry: tt0387564 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
1110,388 TMDB user ratings logged — serious cultural footprint.
12Classified under 20 themes, including "sadism", "shotgun", "detective", "flashback".
13Released under 15 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: David A. Armstrong
Original score: Charlie Clouser
Editing: Kevin Greutert
Production design: Julie Berghoff
Costume design: Jennifer L. Soulages
Makeup / hair: Eleanor Sabaduquia
VFX supervisor: Marlo Pabon
Sound: Jonathan Miller
Stunt coordinator: Keith Adams
Runtime: 103 min · 1h 43m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $1,200,000
Box office: $104,045,735
Return: 8670% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Saw (2004)
Rotten Tomatoes: 50% 🥫 Rotten
Metacritic: 46/100
IMDB rating: 7.6/10 · 508,842 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

9 wins & 10 nominations total

Part of

Saw Collection

A mysterious murderer gives his victims macabre riddles they must solve to earn their freedom.

Also by

James Wan

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

talisencrw2016-08-22
★ 9/10
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.
CinemaSerf2024-11-10
★ 7/10
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).