SAW

亞當被人扔在有水的浴缸裏，他醒來後立刻掙扎了出來，發現自己身處一間破敗的地下室內，一隻腳被銬在一段鏽蝕的鐵水管上。在他的對面還銬着另外一個人，同樣是一位不知所措的被綁架者-----勞倫茲·戈登醫生。在房間中央有一具躺在血泊中的屍體，他的手裏握着一把點38手槍。

沒有人知道自己為何被綁，更不明白自己為什麼會出現在這個詭異的地方，沒有人知道自己該做什麼，但兇手卻已將指示留給了他們。那具屍右手握着一部小型錄音機，裏面錄着綁架者的指令：戈登必須在6個小時之內殺死亞當，如果任務失敗，不僅兩個人都要死，戈登的家人也會慘遭毒手。

綁架者的這些做法不禁讓戈登想起了警探泰普正在調查的一個兇手，這個精神變態的兇手喜歡將自己認為沒有珍惜自己生命的受害者綁架，讓他們在相互殘殺中體驗生命的價值。他和亞當兩人已經成為了兇手的棋子，面臨着和從前受害者相似的命運。

距離死亡的期限只有幾個小時了，可是雙方的實力對比又是如此懸殊：兇手似乎對他們瞭如指掌，而他們卻只知道他是一個綽號“豎鋸”的精神分裂狂徒；兇手控制着兩個人和他們家人的命運，可他們能夠從現場獲得的蛛絲馬跡似乎都是兇手有意留下的；兇手用各種設備掌握着他們的行動，卻只給他們留下了兩隻手鋸——它們不足以打開他們的腳鏈，卻完全可以鋸斷腳腕逃出去。

在裝手鋸的袋子裏，放着幾張相片，正是亞當受泰普所僱而拍攝的戈登的一舉一動。在攝有戈登房屋窗户的一張照片裏，戈登醫生意外發現了一個人影，正是醫院的一名清潔工——賽普。這時他們斷定賽普就是“豎鋸”。

而此時的賽普確實綁架着戈登的家人，並給戈登打電話催促他儘快殺掉亞當（手機只能接聽），然而戈登不忍心殺害亞當。戈登妻子與賽普爭鬥中通話中斷，手機通話中斷，戈登將手機也拋在了一邊，結果戈登妻子得救，賽普逃跑。戈登妻子再度通電給戈登，戈登卻由於剛剛將手機拋掉且腳被鎖住，無法拿到手機。手機鈴聲響着，戈登在狂躁與絕望之下鋸斷了自己的腳，鋸腳的過程中手機不再響了。戈登拖着斷腿爬了出去。

最後，戈登醫生以斷了一隻腳的代價逃出去尋求幫助，而亞當還在那裏。

Not since Se7en's John Doe has there been a serial killer with such a bizarre philosophy behind his actions (not that Jigsaw actually kills anyone; more on that later). Sure, in light of the increasingly deteriorating sequels it's hard to think of Saw as little more than a franchise- starter (something the writer and director never planned), but viewed on its own, astonishing merits, it's a good, nasty thriller, filled with solid scares and (especially compared to the follow-ups) quite well written.

According to the film's notorious back-story, it took only 28 days to shoot it. Not that strange, given most of the action takes place in just two locations: one is a bathroom where Adam (Leigh Whannell) and Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes) fins themselves with their feet chained to the wall, with no recollection whatsoever of how the hell they got there; the other is the lair of the mysterious Jigsaw, a serial killer whom Detectives Sing (Ken Leung) and Trapp (Danny Glover) have been tracking down for weeks.

The two facts are linked in a most ingenious way: Jigsaw doesn't really kill anyone, but "plays a game" with his victims. In the case of Adam and Dr. Gordon, as the tape recorder found in a dead man's hand tells them, each of them has two hours to free himself and kill the other, or they will both die. Problem is, the only way to get rid of the chains is to saw your foot off. And so, while the two unfortunate cell-mates have to choose who gets to live (that's Jigsaw's perverse logic: he offers you a choice), the police close in on the elusive psycho, whose previous deeds and MO are shown in flashbacks.

Whereas the subsequent Saw films use the messy chronology just for the hell of it (though they do get away with some neat narrative tweaks thanks to it), the first installment takes advantage of its non-linear storytelling to increase the suspense and provide some valuable clues to how everything fits together. It is to James Wan and co-writer Whannell's eternal credit that they, like Se7en writer Andrew Kevin Walker, went beyond slasher clichés and came up with something more. Okay, so Saw's philosophical undertones aren't entirely original, but what the heck, they do manage to keep the audience interested in what's going on. In addition, adding a little more depth to the killer ensures that the movie's more gruesome parts (and there are a lot of them) don't come off as gratuitous bloodletting (for an example of the latter, look no further than the countless sequels to A Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday 13th).

Furthermore, the intelligence behind the film's structure might also have had a positive effect on the performances, given the acting is more convincing here than in most post-2000 shockers: Elwes and Whannell's desperation is conveyed with an intensity that's almost too painful to behold, Glover plays the aging cop role resisting the temptation to do a Lethal Weapon in-joke (you know, the "too old for this sh*t" gag) and when Jigsaw himself appears... well, it's the horror equivalent of Keyser Soze - chilling and impossible to forget (and, for once, not played by Kevin Spacey). Just like the movie. ^[1]