1. I take it as proof that Saw is half a parody of serial-killer movies... that Elwes goes stark raving bonkers off-the-deep-end awful in the film's final moments.
2. Fans of industrial music finally have a mainstream movie release that represents their zeitgeist
3. A bloody, repugnant world that will offend all but hard-core horror fans.
4. Terrifying at some moments and insinuatingly creepy at many others.
5. Dark and twisted.
6. A gratuitous, if often successfully creepy exercise in sadomasochistic filmmaking, Saw features some of the worst acting I have ever seen in a mainstream film with an experienced cast.
7. 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.
8. A sick, twisted, deliriously entertaining horror thriller that rivals The Texas Chainsaw Massacre for sheer, relentless intensity.
9. An ingenious machine for inducing terror, rage, and paralyzing unease.
10. So over the top that even the recruited audience of non-critics at my screening began to howl.
Based on these individual reviews, what is the critic consensus?
Saw is more than nasty enough for genre junkies, but far too twisted, gory, and shallow for more discerning horror fans.