Saw is a 2004 horror film directed by James Wan, who more recently directed the Insidious films and is set to direct the upcoming Fast and Furious 7. The film is not a conventional horror film, instead slotting into a sub-genre of horror called torture-porn. The film follows the case of the Jigsaw killer, who captures seemingly innocent people and puts them into traps that force them to cause great harm to themselves in order to escape death. The film stars Danny Glover as the main detective following the case and Cary Elwes who plays one of the Jigsaw victims.
The film opens with slow, mysterious titles that make the film see more sophisticated than other horrors that would start with quite prominent titles featuring dripping blood and screams. The first shot of the film is a close up of a man submerged underwater with his eyes closed, his face only illuminated in some areas by a small blue light that shows parts of his face. The man suddenly opens his eyes and sits up out of the water coughing and spluttering. There are a few close up shots of the plughole of the bath as the bath starts to drain, with the mysterious blue light also being flushed down the drain. This tells the audience that there is some importance to that prop and raises questions as to its significance. We then have a medium shot of the man getting out of the bath, and we see the scene is played out in almost complete darkness. The fact the location of the scene is kept a secret for the time being builds tension as the audience waits for the big reveal of the situation the character is in.
The character realises as he tries to get up from the floor that his ankle is chained to a nearby pipe, and he is trapped. Upon this realisation the man starts to cry out "Help! Someone help me!" The writers use dialogue to make the audience sympathise with this character and root for him, as he is clearly disorientated and scared. The reason most fans of this genre pay to see these films are so they can see these awful situations and visualise themselves being part of the film. This also helps the audience to sympathise with the character as once you imagine being in that situation yourself you can see just how terrifying it would be. A loud clanging sound is heard and the audience knows the sound is digetic when the man reacts to it. His confused and scared state is reinforced when he says "is someone there? Hey!" An unknown second voice is heard that seems controlled and attempts to calm the man down. The 2nd man manages to find a light switch and flicks them on.
The sound of the lights turning on is asynchronous as it is greatly amplified to make the reveal of the location more of a shock. The sound the lights make as they turn on also sounds more like an electric shock, which also works to make the scene more scary. We have a high angle shot of the 1st character blinded by the sudden strong light which makes him seem small and vulnerable. This is comparable to the low angle shot of the room itself which makes the location seem more intimidating as well as showing the audience the characters view of the room from his fixed position. The room itself takes he form of an abandoned bathroom, with the floor and pipes rusting away and the tiles filled with dirt. The use of the location is an example of this film conforming to horror conventions as abandoned areas are a staple-point of most of these films. A possible reason for the use of abandoned areas in these types of films are that these locations have been left by civilization and any events that take place inside these types of places are sure to never reach the outside world. This heightens the sense of being trapped and far from safety and therefore also heightens the fear factor of the events.
The audience are then shown a medium shot of the 2nd man who is older than the 1st, explaining his more controlled approach to the situation. The costumes also give the audience a clue as to the nature of these 2 characters, with the 1st, younger man wearing an open shirt with a t-shirt underneath suggesting a more laid back fashion style. The 2nd, older man on the other hand is wearing a buttoned up shirt, suggesting his is more mature and professional. The next shot begins by giving us a shot of the scene from the 2nd mans perspective, showing the 1st in a long shot. This same shot then pans down on the centre of the floor where a dead body is shown with a bullet wound to his head and a gun in his hand, with a lot of blood surrounding the body. This introduces the gore element to the audience and gives the cinema-goers a small taste of what to expect from the rest of the film. The shot is also accompanied by the non-digetic sounds of a scream, a gunshot and a tense high-pitched sound that amplifies the shock of the revelation. We then get a close up the mans hands, one of which is holding the gun, whilst the other clutches a tape recorder. This shows the audience that these props, like the blue light at the beginning, must hold some significance to the story.
The opening scene concludes with the younger man desperately pulling at his chains which shows his desperateness and maybe lack of comprehension at the finality of his situation. He is yet to accept the fact that he is trapped and instead convinces himself that pulling at the chains may offer some sort of escape from these nightmarish events. The opening scene of the film works well as it establishes the 2 main protagonists without the audience knowing a single thing about them, only the situation they are in. The scene also raises a lot of questions, such as who these people are? Who has done this to them? Where are they exactly? Why is that man dead? What was that blue light at the beginning that went down the drain? All of these questions definitely cause intrigue and make the audience want to continue watching to find the answers. However it could be argued that the amount of questions raised could make the audience feel a little alienated from the film, as they have been introduced to so many plot threads at once without knowing any information.
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