50 Greatest Horror Movies Of The 21st Century
32. Saw
Plot: Two men (Cary Elwes and Leigh Whannel) wake up, chained in a bathroom, and discover they are the latest victims of the Jigsaw Killer. They're now caught in a game where the price of losing is death.
Flaws aside (most notably, its terrible lead performances), James Wan's direction debut is an absolutely killer horror film.
Excruciatingly tense, brilliantly plotted and gruesome without ever feeling gratuitous, Saw fully capitalizes on its genius premise and it eventually culminates in one of the best horror movie endings ever.
It's a stunning death game movie and it's understandable why so many other filmmakers tried to follow its example as Saw, with its paranoid tone, focus on torture and surveillance, and distinctly modern feel, felt like a fitting horror film for the post-9/11 era. Unfortunately, few of its many imitators worked since most of them lacked this movie's intelligence and patience.
As such, Saw's legacy (including the wildly inconsistent sequels) isn't a great one, but the original is still a modern horror classic.