Saw: Critic Reviews

93%

MovieWeb: 17 reviews

48%

RottenTomatoes: 170 reviews

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Owen Gleiberman Entertainment Weekly (Top Critic)

59

The back-shelf-of-the-video-store horror geek in me was intermittently entertained.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Stephen Holden New York Times (Top Critic)

50

James Wan's sadistic, Halloween-ready gore fest suggests a reality television competition like Fear Factor, carried to the nth degree of cruelty.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Mike Clark USA Today (Top Critic)

38

So over the top that even the recruited audience of non-critics at my screening began to howl.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Desson Thomson Washington Post (Top Critic)

The Internet film geeks are salivating over this one. But humans who live above ground, including horror fans, will find themselves only fitfully entertained and more consistently appalled.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Wesley Morris Boston Globe (Top Critic)

50

Saw often resembles the ghastliest editions yet of Fear Factor and Survivor and features some of the grodiest direction this side of Project Greenlight.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Mark Holcomb Village Voice (Top Critic)

James Wan's Saw starts off incomprehensibly, turns nasty in a hurry, and ultimately induces numb exhaustion.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Jami Bernard New York Daily News (Top Critic)

25

A gore movie with no teeth.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Bruce Westbrook Houston Chronicle (Top Critic)

50

Its hellish extremes more oppressive than entertaining.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Gary Dowell Dallas Morning News (Top Critic)

17

A grisly thriller that plays like a bargain-basement rehash of other, better movies.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times (Top Critic)

50

An efficiently made thriller, cheerfully gruesome, and finally not quite worth the ordeal it puts us through.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Robert K. Elder Chicago Tribune (Top Critic)

75

Saw is a nasty, nasty piece of business. And I mean that in the nicest possible way.
Full Review » 8 years ago
David Hiltbrand Philadelphia Inquirer (Top Critic)

50

The film is a squeamish exercise, like watching a cruel child pull the wings off flies.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Colin Covert Minneapolis Star Tribune (Top Critic)

50

If you're looking for something more meaningful than visceral shocks, Saw won't cut it.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Bill Muller Arizona Republic (Top Critic)

50

Saw is a marketing campaign in search of a movie.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Rex Reed New York Observer (Top Critic)

The gore is relentless and in your face, and if you grew up glued to the old Universal fright flicks like I did, you won't want to miss a minute of the mayhem.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Dennis Harvey Variety (Top Critic)

There are cheaply effective if unoriginal scares. Filmmakers bring a certain verve to such moments; but building atmosphere and suspense is well beyond them. Ditto handling actors.
Full Review » 8 years ago
V.A. Musetto New York Post (Top Critic)

25

There are a few cheap thrills, but not enough to make sitting through the senseless plot even remotely worthwhile.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Jay Boyar Orlando Sentinel (Top Critic)

80

Neither a deep, psychological thriller nor a mindless slasher flick, this is one skillfully made, if admittedly superficial, creepout.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Geoff Pevere Toronto Star (Top Critic)

40

A strenuously morbid assembly of deranged-genius- serial-killer movie conventions cribbed from just about every popular post-Hannibal Lecter movie imaginable.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Leah McLaren Globe and Mail (Top Critic)

50

Inventive, but ultimately flawed, film.
Full Review » 8 years ago
David Edelstein Slate (Top Critic)

An ingenious machine for inducing terror, rage, and paralyzing unease.
Full Review » 8 years ago
James Berardinelli ReelViews (Top Critic)

75

On the strength of a grippingly original concept and 90 strong minutes of building action, Saw gets a recommendation, but only if you like this kind of thing.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Frank Scheck Hollywood Reporter (Top Critic)

Saw boasts an undeniably original premise and clever plot machinations that lift it several notches above the usual slasher film level.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Peter Travers Rolling Stone (Top Critic)

50

Director James Wan hits the grisly button without shame.
Full Review » 8 years ago
Carina Chocano Los Angeles Times (Top Critic)

40

Saw carelessly underscores its own shaky narrative at every turn with its mid-budget hokiness.
Full Review » 8 years ago