Welcome to the Kill Count. Where we tally up the victims at all our favorite horror movies. I'm James A. Janisse and today we're looking at Saw. A low-budget film with a big impact released in 2004. Directed by James Wan and written by Leigh Whannell, Saw is one of the most influential horror films ever made injecting life and brutality into a genre that had grown stagnant with Scream knockoffs aimed at teenagers. It was so successful, it would go on to spawn six sequels released on an annual basis throughout the rest of the decade with an eighth film, Jigsaw (2017), hitting theaters last year and a ninth movie all but confirmed at this point. Saw's reputation proceeds. Although It's often dismissed as senseless torture porn, this first film is no more graphic than your standard sleazy slasher. Sure, the sequels would get bloodier and bloodier but the original Saw is more about the mystery of the Jigsaw Killer and of course the traps that force his victims to make difficult decisions if they want to come out alive. The original also sets up the twisted storytelling and flashbacks-within-flashbacks that would give this series one of the most convoluted running storylines in all of horror. Over the next eight weeks, I'll guide hardcore fans, and the uninitiated alike through all this madness, but right now. Let's start at the beginning and get to the kills The movie begins with a blue light surrounded by darkness the lights attached to something floating in a tub of water and when this dude wakes up in it the light goes straight down the drain. Later we'll learn how much that SUCKS. Bathtub Boy calls out confused in the darkness and is greeted by a very gravelly voice Bathroom Boy: TURN ON THE LIGHTS! Gravely Voice: What if I could? When the lights do come on, they blind this guy like it's 3:00 in the morning and he had to get up and take a pee. He's in a bathroom and across from him is the gravel-voiced gentleman. Between them, is a body lying in a big pool of blood from an apparent self-inflicted gun wound to the head. In one hand, the gun, in the other a tape recorder and both the living men find her ankles chained to the bathroom pipes. A lot of us have seen this movie a thousand times, but I always try to remember that this setup is instantly intriguing and also probably helps start the escape room craze that I love so much! Our Bathtub Boy is Adam, played by Leigh Whannell. Damn this dude can write and act? Gravel-voiced Man: What's your name? Adam: My NAME is "Very-Fucking-Confused". WHAT'S YOUR NAME? Well, at least he can write. James: The other guy is Cary Elwes trying REAL hard to hide his English accent. His character's name? Dr. Lawrence Gordon: The name is Lawrence Gordon. I'm a doctor. He's a doctor. James: And he TOO just woke up in this place. Neither of them can remember getting there at all. Adam: I went to bed in my shithole apartment, and woke up in an ACTUAL SHITHOLE! James: And this place IS a shithole. There's shit all over the walls. THERE'S SHIT EVERYWHERE! Gordon realizes that the wall clock isn't covered in shit. So it must be new and placed there with a purpose. Like a time telling purpose. In his pants, Adam finds an envelope with his name on it. And inside is a very pushy tape. We'll play you when we get the time, Tape. Gordon's pants are home to another self-promoting tape, but with an additional bonus bullet. Oh shit! There's a key in there, too? But as US escape room aficionados could have guessed, the key doesn't work in any of the locks they have right now. That tape recorder would sure be handy though and through the power of plaid, and a bathtub chain, Adam's able to reach the dead body and retrieve the dead media device. The tape he plays gives the world it's first listen to Jigsaw. Jigsaw: Rise and shine Adam. You're probably wondering where you are? Jigsaw: I'll tell you where you might be. You might be in the room you die in. James: The tape calls Adam a voyeur and says "Now he has the chance to act instead of just watch." Pretty cryptic and DEFINITELY NOT the tape you'd want to take to a desert island. Hoping to hear a better Bop, Gordon tosses his tape to Adam. DJ Tub Boy plays that track and the tape gives Gordon some instructions. Jigsaw: Your aim in this game... Jigsaw: Is to kill Adam. Jigsaw: You have until "Six" on the clock to do it. James: It also spills a bunch of other info, like how the dude in the room shot himself because he was super poisoned. That "X" marks the spot for treasure. And that if he doesn't kill Adam by 6:00 that Gordon's wife and daughter will die and he'll be left in this room to rot. Jigsaw: Let the game begin. James: Oh... Could we do Catan instead? A closer listen reveals a very faint whisper saying "Follow your heart". And it looks like there's a shitty heart shit-painted on that shitty toilet. Adam plugs his nose and fishes inside the bowl, only to find nothing. Then checks in the tank like what any reasonable person would've done first. He finds a plastic bag with two hacksaws inside. And maybe that's it. Or maybe Adam is tossing the bag aside discreetly for a specific reason. When the saws do nothing against their chains, Adam throws his in rage. Where it breaks off a piece of shit covered mirror. Seems like those saws might prefer the taste of flesh. Dr. Gordon: He doesn't want us to cut through our chains. Dr. Gordon: He wants us to cut through our feet. James: That's what I'm sayin', Gordie
(Transcriptor Note: WTF?) Gordon says he knows who's doing this to them. And we launch into our first flashback of the series. Get ready for confusing time jumps, 'cause this franchise plays with chronology as much as freaking Lost does. Oh, speaking of Lost, one of the detectives on the case is Steven Sing played by Ken Leung. His partner is David Tapp, played by Danny Glover, (Of the Lethal Weapon movies) and they just found themselves a corpse strung up in razor wire. Detective Alison Carey, Dina Meyer of Starship Troopers, tells them how this dude had a real rough death crawling through this mess. And that they found a tape on the scene. Jigsaw: Hello Paul. You are perfectly healthy, sane. middle class, male. Jigsaw: Yet, last month, you ran a straight razor across your wrist. James: See? Now here's our first glimpse into Jigsaw's mentality. Middle class, male, Paul was apparently cutting himself And rather than sympathetically asking "What's wrong?", Jigsaw sticks him in a room full of razor wire and says if he wants to live he's got to escape before the door locks at 3:00. We see Paul's death played out as he tries to win Jigsaw's game in a scene edited like an industrial metal music video. It looks a little silly now. But it was the creative solution to the film's low budget and lack of coverage. So I ain't gonna hate. Paul's body is missing a piece of flesh cut out in the shape of a puzzle piece and thus the name of our condescending killer is born. Gordon: Actually, technically speaking, he's not really a murderer. Ugh. This shit. James: There's sometimes this idea that Jigsaw technically isn't a killer since he just finds ways for his victims to kill themselves. Hey jigsaw, maybe ask Charlie Manson how that shit holds up in court. Oh wait, you can't. HE DIED IN PRISON! I don't know fraudulently using a handicap parking sticker or something jigsaw poisoned him and put the antidote inside a safe the Combination of which is written on the walls somewhere among all these numbers But wait, there's also tons of glass on the floor, but wait again He smeared down in some flammable jelly so the candle he's using to light his way could become fatal and it does Mark is immolated after trying to win this impossible fucking game, but you know Technically jigsaw didn't kill him the trap Did yeah well who put him in the trash? Jigsaw did Carry points out a peephole and says jigsaw likes to have a front row seat to his own games She also finds a pen light on the scene that belongs to dr. Gordon remember we're still in a flashback and in it Gordon is talking about a patient with an inoperable Tumor he keeps calling the dude the patient which I feel is pretty standard But someone's not a fan of that clinical speech his name is John dr. Gordon Hey
Speaking of lost is Michael Emerson playing zepp and orderly at the hospital who says the patient John is actually a very interesting Person Gordon's lesson is interrupted by the school principal calling him to the office And as he leaves one of his students Lear's at him with some serious Fuck me eyes Tap and Singh are waiting for him to return the pen light and take him to the station But Gordon's cleared after he reluctantly gives them an alibi that we don't get to hear just yet Must've been something embarrassing like a bad night of diarrhea for some reason Singh has Gordon's stick around to eavesdrop on a surviving jigsaw victim Telling her tale what the hell kind of sloppy police work Is that Singh her privacy rights are getting all kinds of violated the survivor Amanda who you might want to remember going forward relays her story in a flashback Replete with more music video style editing she woke up in a room with the most infamous trap of the series fixed around her hat A reverse bear trap as explained to her by Billy the puppet in his premiere appearance hello Amanda I want to play a game the devices hooked to her upper and lower jaws and when the timer runs out how this happens Ho that poor wig head the key to unlock the device is in the stomach of Amanda supposedly dead Cellmate But after she thrashes her way out of the chair and starts the timer it becomes evident that the dude on the ground by her is Not in fact dead, but rather very much alive still Amanda came here to win So she puts it all on the field and grabs the provided knife to carve this dude's stomach open like a jack-o'-lantern she stabs him a whole heap load of times tearing apart his guts and searching through his entrails to find his stomach which has the Key inside she manages to get the trap off just before it turns her head into Styrofoam dust and her victory parade of Billy and his trademark red tricycle comes out of the shadows to congratulate her congratulations Most people are so ungrateful to be alive but not you, not anymore Good job Amanda you won, gratitude Tap mentions that she was a drug addict, which again pretty harsh rehab treatment there jigsaw But I guess in her case it worked He helped me Back in the shit bathroom Adam discovers the mirror glass that broke off is to way and when he busts out the remaining glass they Find a camera in the medicine cabinet unbeknownst to either bathroom boy on the other side of the camera is someone watching them with a taunting voice I can see you Gordon talks about his family for a while and tosses his wallet to Adam so he can see a picture of the Gordon clan but But inside the wallet is a pic you probably wouldn't want to send out with the Christmas cards on the back of this scary terrorist picture is a reminder that x marks The spot but with an additional clue saying sometimes you see more with your eyes shut that doesn't make sense Adam doesn't divulge this information To the doc and instead pockets the scary pic for himself another flashback takes us to the last time Gordon saw his family after his daughter Diana woke up his wife Alison to say there was a bad man in her room Gordon helped put Diana back to bed by Playing leppy boy's favorite game this little piggy, but right in the middle of wee wee wee He gets interrupted by his beeper going off on his way to answer the call he gets into an argument with Alison in their weird Fucking living room what is that curtain? They have a little stage back there? Maybe they should use it to perform this marital drama They've got going on since their relationship Is obviously on the ropes Gordon leaves and back in Diana's room she sees an eye peeping out of her closet her scream brings Alison To the room to find a g-g-g-g-g-ghost nah. It's not a ghost It's just a mean-spirited Son of a bitch who holds the Gordon family hostage in their own home and plays a sick game where he listens to Diana's heartbeat Rise as he holds a gun up to her mom's head Viewers watching the top of the frame see that this bastard is Zepp The orderly. Is Zepp jigsaw? I don't know as Zepp-saw all looks out the window he spied upon by someone through a camera It's detective Tapp working out of a room with crazy all over the walls and growling about Gordon I never should have let you go Heads up, this is now the present But you'd be forgiven if you didn't know since these Flashbacks forget to announce themselves half the time so maybe try to help with the confusion the movie has a minute long recap montage But you're not even halfway over yet, Saw! this kind of hand-holding will be useful later on when the story gets crazy But come on. We just watched all this shit at least the montage gives us this insane goddamn transition Where a car drives in front of a rueful looking Danny Glover? What the fuck is that oh, yeah? And now we're back in the past when Tapp let Gordon go after they all shared popcorn watching Amanda's messed-up testimony it must be haunting Tapp since he goes straight back to the station and rewatches the jigsaw tape over and over again like it's His favorite youtube channel You're only helping jigsaw ad revenue Tapp his obsessive Rewatching pays off though when he hears a fire alarm in the background and notes a gang symbol on a wall he in Singh check Which fire alarms went off within the gangs territory and voila they're headed to an abandoned warehouse to get themselves a jigsaw not bothering with A warrant or any backup at all nothing could go wrong here inside the warehouse they find an open space Office that jigsaw almost used as a home base and a crafting center. Oh look at his cube of shoebox diorama He'll definitely get an A on that He'll also probably pass this kidnapping quiz because they find a dude there under a red blanket tied up and captured in a trap Traptured? when they hear the elevator coming up tap wants to hide and pretend They're not there to I don't know see what jigsaw does or something it doesn't make any sense Just to rest the guy in the elevator But instead they watch from the shadows as jigsaw and a snazzy black and red robe checks on his captive and spouts off as arrogant bullshit don't cry I've given you a life a purpose the detectives come out But having given up the high ground Jigsaw was able to kick-start the trap and frustrate them by saying the key to unlock it is in this giant ring tap calls jigsaw Sick as he tries to arrest him and jigsaws all like yeah I'm sick Sick of your attitude. Just kidding He's actually sick from cancer Singh finally gets some sense and shoots the trap to pieces But that's when jigsaw uses a hidden sleeve blade to slash Tapps throat and run the hell away Singh give chase the jigsaw and even manages to shoot him in this dingy, hallway good shot Singh But don't forget that jigsaw's a boob man By which I mean booby traps cuz when Singh steps through some cobwebs he trips a wire attached to a bunch of ceiling mounted shotguns that fire down and Blow his friggin head off like a lot of this movie's gore. It's not super explicit, but it's still a pretty cool kill plus It's finally a character death that we actually care about Jigsaw gets up and leaves only a little worse for wear right as Tapp arrives to see Singh dead and get photographed Crying out in anguish he didn't actually get Photographed with the bizarre editing sure makes it a little confusing this movie so damn messy present-day Tapp speaks raspily from his now healed throat Wound as we're reminded that he's watching Zeb. Who is still watching Gordon and Adam? Oh yeah, Gordon and Adam, can we get back to those bathroom boys already and move the story forward instead of back Thanks Adam Finally decides to act on that photo hint and tells Gordon to turn off the lights that reveals an X on the wall that didn't Show up before because the glow-in-the-dark paint hadn't charged yet Gordon bust through the Xbox to find a locked box and once again us escape room pros are eagerly raising our hands to say Hey the key from earlier should open that bad boy up And it does inside is a cell phone a couple of cigarettes and a secret note to Gordon saying the cigarettes aren't necessarily Poisoned at least not yet, gordon tries the phone But it doesn't work because it's only meant to receive calls and Goddamn it What another flashback? Ok sure we're in a parking garage in a scene that looks so operatic for some reason when Gordon fails to notice a camera Flash to the face he also fails to notice this red robe plaid pigheaded person crawling on the ground towards him the pig head rushes Him and jump cuts aplenty get us back inside the shit room where Gordon is questioning How Adam knew to turn off the lights After some grilling Adam reveals the wallet picture to Gordon who so spooked by he can't help, but yell out in rage What are you doing to them you bastard? this kind of desperation might just drive a man to Murder and Gordon eyes the note the bathroom body's blood on the ground and the cigarette then puts all the jigsaw pieces together he dips The cig into the very poisonous blood while adam isn't looking But then he turns off the lights and whispers something to adam that neither Zep nor the audience can hear when the lights come back On they staged a little play wherein gordon offers Adam a smoke But gives him the unpause and cigarette instead Adam smokes hid and gives a very poor performance of a man being poisoned to death so unconvincing that he gets heckled in the form Of a shock through the ankle chain that makes him break a phase good plan though Gordie the shock apparently some memory back into Adams brain I remember everything now Queue another flashback where Adam gets home to his crappy apartment and into his home a dark room to develop pictures of wait for it dr Lawrence goddamn Gordon later on after a dark room nap Adam wakes up to find all the lights in his apartment are off which leads to perhaps The best constructed scene of the movie Adam stalks around the darkened apartment intermittently using his camera flash to get snapshots of visibility It's nice and creepy especially when the silence is broken by this That laugh belongs to Bill E Puppet just lounging on a lazy boy Adam takes a bat to Billie and Beats that puppet! He should probably be more concerned about the pig head in the closet And that's how Adam wound up in the shit room Gordon gets a call on the cell phone from his tearful daughter saying oh you fucked Up not getting that bad man out my room pops Alison takes the line next and tells Gordon that Adam lied to him and knows him But then the line goes dead Gordon demands to know who Adam is and he responds sounding like a real guilty little boy You know who I am that line deliveries the scariest thing in the movie so far in response to being called a liar Adam throws it back at Gordon and Says no you and we flash back again to that soap opera parking garage Where we see Adam is responsible for the earlier scene face flash cool? Then we see what else was in that plastic bag from the toilet tank Adams pictures of Gordon that he's been collecting for days since he gets paid to track rich dudes having affairs affairs like the one Gordon Almost had with that thirsty grad student in a seedy hotel room. That's right I said almost since he stops it before anything happens when he leaves he goes Oh my god back to that parking garage for the third time in like 10 minutes Yes Saw we know there's a camera flash Gordon questions Adam about who paid him to take pictures and it turns out to be none other than Detective David Tapp damn Tapp aren't you getting too old for this shit? Gordon tells Adam all about Tapp and another montage where in Cary Elwes kind of slips into his English accent when he says the word murders Convinced himself that he must have somehow been involved with the murders. Haha. That's fun We're having fun here right guys Adam sees a picture He didn't take and shows it to Gordon who recognizes the person looking out a dirty old window It's a Zepp in that picture. Y'all whoa Gordon starts yelling about how he's gonna pop that little pipsqueak but times up Gordo It's six o'clock and looks to me like Adam is still alive luckily Alison is able to discreetly escape her ties before Zepp comes in to kill her and when he calls And up to tell him the bad news Alison fights back and Wrestles with Zepp over his gun a few shots go off which alerts Tapp across the street that shit's going down and Alison's subdues Zepp with some Scissors to the leg Tapp breaks into the apartment and gets in a shootout with Zepp during which Alison and Diana Escape from the house and the series Zepp smashes a vase over Tapp's head and runs off saying he's got to go run some errands And kill dr. Gordon Tapp recovers and chases him in the absolute worst car chase. I've ever seen in a movie It's just crazily edited shots of the two of them driving wow. This is real bad Gordon doesn't realize his family Got away Cuz all he hears is OK Corral goin down over the phone so in order to escape and save them He ties a shirt tourniquet around his leg shirtniquet and prepares to earn this movie its name while there are a couple shots Of him sawing at his ankle most of the amputation is left to the imagination And shone through shots of a horrified Adam and a crazed dr. Gordon. We never even see the end result We just know he's done when he tosses the saw aside meanwhile Tapp has chased Zepp down into some tunnels and manages to get him up against the wall but Zepp escapes by slinking down and shooting Tapp catching him In the chest and surprisingly killing him this really is the end for detective Tabb who falls to the floor dead unsurprisingly Danny Glover would be one of the few actors in the series who never returned for even so much as a flashback Lawrence crawls his Way over to the bathroom body and takes its gun which he loads with Chekhov's bullet from the beginning of the movie He's pale as a ghost as he apologetically tells Adam that he's got to do what he's got to do you have to die No I wanna live I wanna live! I'm sorry He shoots his bathroom buddy to the ground and cries out that come on He did it let him go now, but when Zepp shows up to the party. He tells Gordon. It's too late Them the rules he goes to shoot Gordon But gets tripped to the ground by a still living Adam who realizes that fists are too Good for zeppy boy, so he grabs the toilet tank lid and beats Zepps head to a bloody pulp with it once again It's not that explicit the entire thing being shown through low angle shots of Adam But Leigh Whannell sells it and the kill ends nicely with the tank lid breaking Gordon crawls over to Adam and tries to offer some Comfort I have to go and get help yeah if I'm Adam, I'm not convinced. This is gonna work This bump the zombie looking one footed motherfucker is supposed to be his salvation color me skeptical or Color Me cynical I don't care. Just cover me something so I don't look like this dr. Gordon ghoul He crawls out promising to bring someone back to help him But Adam wisely starts looking for his own rescue in the form of a key on Zepps body instead he finds a tape player Revealing that Zepp is not the evil mastermind of this movie. He's merely been a pawn this whole time Hello mr Hindle or as they called you around the hospital Zepp The tape reveals depth was poisoned by jigsaw and can only earn the antidote by kidnapping the Gordon family and killing them if Lawrence Failed this is an amazing twist if you didn't know it was coming and I'll forever remember Seeing this the first time and having my freaking mind blown Adams freaking mind is blown - and as he sits there in astonishment we get another great image that of the bathroom bodies slowly waking up from its eight hour nap and getting it a Well-deserved cat stretch. This is John Kramer the man We saw in Gordon's hospital bed, and he is the real jigsaw killer the mastermind behind everything. We've seen so far He tells Adam how he was supposed to escape all along the key to that chain is in the bathtub But that's pretty shitty John Adam didn't even have a chance to retrieve that thing after a crazy quick montage Showing many of this movie's moments jigsaw turns off the lights and delivers the most amazing final words of a horror movie I've ever seen game over Fuck yes Adam was left screaming in the dark, but he doesn't go on this kill count You're just gonna have to trust me during this series plenty of other people did wind up on the count though So let's see how many at the numbers? Six people died in Saw and because Amanda was able to escape her trap all the victims were male So we're kicking off this series with a blueberry pie right there with the runtime of 103 minutes We got a kill on average every seventeen point one two minutes Which is a little slow, but this game has only just begun I'll get the golden chain saw the coolest killed to Zepp it doesn't happen on screen like a lot of the gore here But it's still effective because of Adam's unbridled rage plus killing someone with a toilet tank lid is good stuff No matter how it's done - Dull Machete for lamest kill Definitely goes to Tapp a single slug to the chest is no way for Roger Murtaugh to go out and guess what? for the Saw series kill counts I'm proud to announce two new Awards that I'll be handing out each episode the Platinum punji sticks will go to the coolest trap in each movie Regardless of if they killed anyone or not and the inaugural winner will of course be the reverse bear trap that Amanda escape despite not getting to see its end result this trap has become the Quintessential Saw trap and it's so violent that you even kind of feel for the mannequin head that gets destroyed during the demo Conversely the rusty mousetrap goes to the movies lamest trap I'll give this one to Adams bathroom trap cuz like what his whole game was to just out let the key go down the drain when he woke up and that's It Saw came out in 2004 and changed the horror genre forever Not everything about it holds up 14 years later But it still deserves recognition for how influential it was I'll take a look at the first sequel Saw II next week But until then I'm James a Janisse this has been the kill count Thanks a lot for watching today's kill count new series new set how do you like it? I have some more Saw props coming in the mail that didn't arrive in time, but don't worry next time you see this background It's gonna be even fancier. It's a work in progress this whole thing I've had a crazy couple of weeks with Monsterpalooza and Taxes and preparing for Texas Frightmare coming up you'll get that Monsterpalooza a video soon next week and be good people
James does seriously thorough work and is funny while doing it. Dead Meat has been one of the most pleasant YouTube discoveries for me in some time