Saw Critic Reviews

Metascore®:

54 =
Based upon 14 Critic Reviews
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San Francisco Chronicle | Carla MeyerAdd Critic to Favorites

The slasher scenes, though relatively few, are amazingly evocative for such a low-budget movie.Read the full review

ReelViews | James BerardinelliAdd Critic to Favorites

Saw is for hard-gore horror aficionados only. Read the full review

The Hollywood Reporter | Frank ScheckAdd Critic to Favorites

Boasts an undeniably original premise and clever plot machinations that lift it several notches above the usual slasher film level. Read the full review

Slate | David EdelsteinAdd Critic to Favorites

Less a classical narrative than an ingenious machine for inducing terror, rage, and paralyzing unease. Read the full review

Entertainment Weekly | Owen GleibermanAdd Critic to Favorites

Saw is a gristle-cut B psycho thriller that would like to tap the sickest corners of your imagination. It has a few moments of nightmare creepiness, but it's also derivative and messy and too nonsensical for its own good. Read the full review

Los Angeles Times | Carina ChocanoAdd Critic to Favorites

Saw is so full of twists it ends up getting snarled. For all of his flashy engineering and inventive torture scenarios, the Jigsaw Killer comes across as an amateur. Hannibal Lecter would have him for lunch. Read the full review

The New York Times | Stephen HoldenAdd Critic to Favorites

Does a better-than-average job of conveying the panic and helplessness of men terrorized by a sadist in a degrading environment, but it is still not especially scary.Read the full review

Chicago Sun-Times | Roger EbertAdd Critic to Favorites

An efficiently made thriller, cheerfully gruesome, and finally not quite worth the ordeal it puts us through.Read the full review

Rolling Stone | Peter TraversAdd Critic to Favorites

It's gross as hell.Read the full review

Boston Globe | Wesley MorrisAdd Critic to Favorites

As long as Saw stays in that big, nasty bathroom, all we need to believe is the knot in our stomachs. Read the full review

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