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The Story: Two men find themselves chained and at the mercy of a psychotic genius.

Saw jumps right into the action as Adam (Leigh Whannel) wakes to find himself chained in a squalid restroom. Across the room from him is another man, a surgeon named Larry (Cary Elwes, in a fantastic and realistic performance), who is also chained. A corpse lies on the floor just out of reach of the two, a cassette player in its hand, an empty revolver on the floor beside it and a bloody gunshot wound in its skull.

As they try to figure out how they got there, each finds a small cassette tape in his pocket and Larry also finds a single bullet. Adam manages to retrieve the recorder from the corpse's hand and plays his tape. When they play Larry's tape the recording states that Larry has until six o'clock to kill Adam or his wife and child will die.

We learn via flashback that Larry knows who has done this to them - a maniacal man the police have dubbed The Jigsaw Murderer. Larry explains that he himself was questioned about the murders mere months earlier by the two detectives working the case (Danny Glover and Ken Leung). The Jigsaw Murderer is a bit of a misnomer, however; you see, The Jigsaw Murderer doesn't kill people himself; rather, he simply puts them into situations where it's up to them if they survive or not. As Larry and Adam work together to find a way out of their predicament, clues left on their cassette tapes lead them to finding a pair of hacksaws in a toilet tank and a cellphone in the restroom wall. Adam's saw breaks as he tries to hack through his chain and the pair realize they're not supposed to saw through the chains, they're supposed to saw through - well, I'd best not say.

Meanwhile, the detectives working the case catch a lucky break from a woman who had survived her encounter with The Jigsaw Murderer. They locate the killer's hide-out (or so they think) but when they arrive there they find yet another victim of The Jigsaw Murderer trapped in a no-win situation. I'll not say more about this scene lest I drop a major spoiler into the mix.

In the meantime, Adam and Larry try to trick their captor into thinking Larry has killed Adam, but the psycho knows it's a ruse and jolts Adam with an electric shock channeled through his chain. Soon, the cell phone the pair had found receives a call and Larry answers it to find his wife and daughter pleading for their lives on the other end. Fuelled by desperation, Larry becomes determined to free himself and save his family, no matter the cost.

Lion's Gate Films is quickly becoming the studio for quality genre fare, and Saw is sure-fire proof. All hyperbole aside, Saw is jam-packed with nail-biting suspense, tension so thick you could cut it with a knife and one twist and turn after another. Right when you think you have the film figured out and are sure you've solved who's behind it all and what's going to happen next, another twist occurs and you suddenly find your heart skipping a beat and your skin crawling right off your bones. This movie, my friends, is what horror is all about.

James Wan's direction is solid and stylish, with the bare minimum of pretentious "modern" flourishes. He mixes cold, clynical point-and-shoot camera work with hand-held, quickly edited camera work and provides a delirious visual structure from which hang numerous nerve-rattling sequences and hypnotically lurid imagery. I should perhaps clarify - this isn't Kubrick. The direction isn't masterful, but it is incredibly effective and suits the bizarre and highly intelligent storyline to a proverbial "T".

Big time kudos to Cary Elwes for his performance. The former Dread Pirate Roberts takes on a role quite different than the usually whimsical roles he normally takes (Kiss the Girls not included) and delivers a thoroughly believable and memorable portrayal. Wahnnell is also good as Adam, and the supporting cast of Glover, Leung and Dina Meyer are above average. But as good as the rest of the cast are, this film belongs to Cary Elwes and I would rank it as one of this best performances. As you might have picked up on, I'm a big fan of Elwes and have been waiting a long time for him to get a role he could really sink his teeth into.

There's not a whole lot more I can go on about without dropping one hint too many and spoiling the film for you, regardless of how carefully I chose my words. Suffice it to say that if you're looking for suspense, scares and sheer, blank-faced terror, Saw is the film for you. I can't wait for what will likely be an "unrated director's cut with additional footage too scary to show in theaters" DVD release - you know, the kind we're seeing more and more of everyday.

This is the best genre film I've seen in a long time, so I can say with some amount of certainty that genre fans will not be disappointed.