30 days of horror reviews!

[Wrathborne]

Welcome to day 1 of my month of movie reviews! Thats right everyday I'm going to review one horror movie. Howver as to not spam the forum, I'll keep all my reviews in this thread.

PLOT:
A mysterious killer known as 'Jigsaw' has been kidnapping people and and putting them through 'tests' via death traps. It's a cute plot, the killer who doesnt really kill his victims but traps them, leaves them with clues and surrounds them with death traps.

His motive for doing so is pretty good too, however its kind of dumb when you think about it, 'I'm going to kill you if you dont appriciate your life. So here are a bunch of death traps that will kill you unless you figure out an obscure clue thats easier to miss than a grain of salt in a bowl of rice'

Cute plot but when you apply logic to it, it doesnt remain as clever.

7/10

SCRIPT:
This is the films second biggest problem, the script. The character Adam, flatter than Gwenyth Paltrow up against a wall. He's got no real character and I didnt give a fuck about him.

Detective Dumbfuck (played by Danny Glover) is as stupid as the nickname I've given him. I don't know what kind of idiot goes into a serial killers grounds with just his friend. This is what seperates a bad screnwriter from a good screenwriter, a good screenwriter would have realized how dumb this idea is.

Dr.Gordon isnt a bad Character, but he's too much a stereotype.The successful but filandering physician? Come on thats as cliche as having the black guy die first in a horror movie.

Gordons Wife has some life to hear, but shes also a stereotype character.

And thats the problem with Saw, its characters are all pretty much stereotypes. The only thing thats really unique is the films ending and its premise.

5/10

ACTING
Cary Elwes as Lawrence Gordon is pretty much the one guy who ends up holding the entire film on his shoulders. Elwes is a really good actor, but in this film he doesnt give out his usual performance. I blame it on the James Wan.

Danny Glover gives a pretty good performance, but his character is so dogshit dumb its hard to watch Danny on the screen.

Leigh Whannel...I haven't seem this much lack of talent and prescence on the screen since Thandie Newton.

Monica Potter as Gordons Wife is actually pretty good, but as shes not really a major character in the film as she is a plot point it doesnt add much to the score.

Same with Ken leung as Det.Sing.

Shawnee Smith as Amanda isnt bad, but her one scene and flash back dont really give you much to absorb as a character.

6/10

MUSIC
Yeah, the Music in this film was pretty flat, I honestly cant remember much of it. I wanted some cpreepy gothic atmospheric music to add more tone to the atmosphere.I do remember some hammy techno here adn there though.

5/10

EDITING
What the fuck is wrong with this film? There are times its pretty well peiced together and then it shifts into a shitty MTV music video, the superfast cartoony speed in several scenes just hurts. It doesnt help that the film is slow and its pacing is pretty 'off' as well so it jumps about a bit while continuing a slow descent into mediocracy.

6/10

GORE
What little there is isnt bad, but it feels more like a PG-13 film with a few tiny bits gore that add a smidge of juice to it. There arent any real squeemish gore effects in the film, yeah we see Dr.Gordon saw into his foot some and a guys guts...um, that was pretty much the major shit right there.

6/10

CINEMATOGROPHY
I felt the film suceeded here quite well, the creepy dingy dirty look of Jigsaws traps and the lighting worked for me as well. I thougth this was the best part of the film.

8/10

DIRECTION
James Wan has some talent when it comes to visuals, but when it comes to working with actors, and intense emotion...he's pretty bland. Doesnt seem to know how to handle it or crank it up to the right level.

Saw got pretty damn Z-grade in a few bits, Especially with Adam and the fact detective dumbfuck fires like....I think almost 25 shots in the film and only manages to wing his target once. That's just really bad, almost Uwe Boll bad.
5/10

FUN FACTOR
I didnt have much fun watchign saw, it had some decent moments but it was mainly two guys getting irritated at eachother.

4/10

CHEESE

While we all know some cheese can add some life to a film,a cheezy film that takes itself seriously kind of sits on your head. too much cheese please.

So in this case the cheese scoreworks against saw.

- 7/ 10

Overall: 45 /90 = 'F'

2nd opinion: its not a terrible movie, but its no where near as good as people make it out to be. Maybe it was all the hype, but even though this was a creative film, it wasnt really a good one.

Too amateurish, not enough emotional investment in the characters, and characters doing unbelievably stupid things.
____________

Catch you tomorrow when I review...Well, you'll have to wait until tomorrow.

[3/6]

[steelba]

[Wrathborne]

[FrighT MasteR]

[choptop2]

[BooBerry]

Saw was cool. 2 and 3 sucked balls though.
Fright!? what is your sig video from? It makes me laugh.

[FrighT MasteR]

Check my post called "Botched" in the Foreign section.

[koolmike]

I loved SAW.

[DeathBanana]

Saw is a good time.

[hackerslacker]

whats next WB?

[steelba]

He's sparing us :cheerlead

[3/6]

i think his "30 days of reviews" turned into 1 nite and a handful of 's

[KING]

[Wrathborne]

whats next WB?

'Night of the living dead' the original 1968 film.

Working on it now, been a hectic day so I'm behind.

Oh Steelba, if you dotn like the reviews dont read them. I'm just having some fun.

[Wrathborne]

PLOT
One night all of a sudden the dead rise and attack the living. Eating their victims and making more and more ‘ghouls’. Seven people hide inside a small farm house and try to survive the night. But personalities clash and when people cant work together, things go wrong real fast.

It’s actually a pretty damn good plot. Even though this film is almost 40 years old it still hold sup quite well today. Not to mention this is THE film that made zombies what they are: flesh eating plague rats. Before night of the living dead, zombies were just henchmen that’d strangle. Here they’re their own monster.

10/10

SCRIPT
I have some issues with Romero’s script and characters, mainly that…well, they aren’t that interesting in a lot of ways. Why does Barbara go into a childlike state after just being attacked by a zombie in the graveyard? I understand the shock of losing a loved one as well as her fear of graveyards from a child, but it doesn’t quite equal a mental brake down. Though it may just be me, I noticed her ‘freaking out’ when describing the zombie attacking her to Ben eerily similar to how a rape victim would describe being attacked. So that alone is enough for me to nod deduct any points. Ben as a character, wow, this guy is all about getting things done and trying to stay one step ahead of the dead, Ben is to Zombie films what Ash is to B movies. He’s really always trying to think on his feet, he’s very tough and he tries to get the others to work with him, not against him. The fact Ben is black and not white really is unique in this film, especially when it comes from an era when Segregation just fell. I like how the film kind of is about racism, the line from Ben to Barbara ’Gonna be a lot more of them here when they find out about us’ sounds a lot like how the KKK would react to a white woman marrying a black man back then.
My only real issues with the script are Tom and Judy’s death being kind of…well stupid. It seemed kind of like a bad joke that her jacket would get caught.
I also didn’t like that we didn’t get more ‘character’ From Helen Cooper and Barbara. I felt there was more to explore with each of them that we never got. But these are minor grips on a really good script that still holds up 40 years later.
8/10

ACTING
All about Duane Jones and Karl Hardman’s tension between each other. Harry Cooper might be a closet racist, or just a control freak, we don’t know. But Harry’s need to hide and bens desire to stand his ground is one of the best parts in the film. And Jones and Hardmann pull it off really well. Judith O’Dea as Barbara is pretty convincing as a woman who has a mental breakdown.

The dead in the film are interesting because they don’t act like zombies in a lot of ways, they don’t snarl or groan or howl or drool. They’re people in a trance who just stare and wait, and to be honest that is pretty damn creepy.

8/10

MUSIC
Very nice creepy stuff. Especially when you consider that its 40 years old and as we know the music that was used in ye olden horror Is pretty bland and focused more on atmosphere(but not the right atmosphere) The simple light tunes used here to this day still ARE creepy and unsettling.

7/10

EDITING
The only real issues I had with the editing is the films pacing which is yeah, pretty slow, but it does build up in the final act so that’s always good.
The other issue I had is some of the continuity, over the course of three shots it goes from day to pitch black night, and some other minor things. But it’s the pacing that kind of gets me.

7/10

CINEMATOGROPHY
There are some shots of early ‘dutch’ angles that I think are really cool. The overall look and ton eof the film is pretty bleak and in this case while it may not be that appealing visually, it does stick with you and add atmosphere to this dark world Romero created. SO even though I would have liked some more artsyness and visual appeal, it still works.

8/10

DIRECTION
The tension between Ben and Harry feels real, the feeling that this outbreak could happen is there and this dark bleak world also feels real. Romero created something special when he made night of the living dead, the fact that it feels like it could happen. That will always win him a strong score.

9/10

FUN FACTOR
The film isn’t amazingly fun to watch, but its always interesting top watch. It’s not about action scenes, its about people trying to think, work together and overcome something really horrifying. So that compensates for some lack of entertainment here and there.

8/10

CHEESE
The cheese in this case works for the film. Zombies taking over, militia groups stepping in as law, epidemics, bit of scifi and some simple but fun gore are good for you.

7/10

Overall
72/90= a ‘B’, just because some of the aspects of the film haven’t aged that well doesn’t mean its not strong and worth watching.

But some pacing issues, some bland music here and there, and the fact I wanted to know more about some characters is the reason that this movie didn’t get a higher score. that’s just me.

[3/6]

..i wonder if anyone is gonna actully read these..

[KING]

I skimmed through it.

[choptop2]

i think his "30 days of reviews" turned into 1 nite and a handful of 's

I give this thread

out of

[3/6]