10 Best Slasher Movies Since 2000
1. Saw
From the moment Adam (Leigh Whannell) wakes up in a windowless room, you know that Saw is going to be very different from your average slasher movie. You can just feel it – it’s smarter and sharper, with a script you could cut diamonds on.
This first film isn’t really about the traps or about Jigsaw – when it opens, it seems like it’s going to be another of those boring two-guys-in-a-room indie thrillers. Then Leigh Whannell’s script whisks us out of the room and straight into the story of a killer who offers his targets a choice – confront your worst fears, or die.
His preferred method of rehabilitation for drug addicts is the “reverse bear trap”, which, unlike in the sequels, is never deployed and actually “helps” its target. However, it’s unfair to claim that Saw initiated the trend for so-called “torture porn” – that dubious honour rests with Michael Bay’s equally dubious Texas Chainsaw reboot, which also treated us to the sight of Jessica Biel in a wet t-shirt.
In contrast, Saw was a movie for the head, a well thought-out psycho-thriller that didn’t skimp on character.