Deliriously inventive and sadistically cruel, Saw breaths new life into the serial killer genre with its extremely ingenious setup. It begins in a decrepit bathroom occupied by two men, both of whom wake up to find themselves chained to a pipe by their feet, a dead body lying between them. Neither of them knows how they got there, or where to begin to find an escape. All they have to work with are the mini-cassette tapes found in their pockets, both of which reveal that they have been unwillingly selected to participate in a gruesome game of survival, the rules of which are, well, pretty extreme.

I’ve heard a lot of people comparing this movie to Seven. But unlike David Fincher’s bleakly moralistic entry, Saw doesn’t have any mainstream crossover appeal. No dandy actors like Brad Pitt will be found here, just an uncomfortably intense two-hander in which the unwilling captives, Dr. Gordon (Cary Elwes) and Adam (Leigh Whannell, who also co-wrote the script), try to figure out what's going on, and a series of carefully managed flashbacks in which Danny Glover's plodding cop tries to track down a psycho known as The Jigsaw Killer. Saw is the ultimate movie for modern horror aficionados who prefer their scares sparse, stripped down and illuminated by flickering neon lights.

Schlock-horror maestro Roger Corman constantly reminded his writers that the first ten minutes of a movie were of vital importance. That's when the audience is captured and the tone for the entire film is set. Many filmmakers waste precious time with useless scenery shots. But Saw starts exactly when the protagonists do: suddenly waking up in a water-filled bathtub in a dark room with no memory of how they got there. They’re literally born into a new, menacing, uncertain and anonymous world. Other recent movies started this way, like Cube and Dark City -- both have become cult classics.

The story unfolds slowly, giving information only as it's required -- or when it's unexpected. It expertly plays on some traditional and common fears. Raise your hand if you find darkness, evil clowns and extreme physical torture scary. All this and more is featured in this movie, employed within a wider plot to make sure you’re never relaxed enough to have your peanuts. That wider plot is somewhat sacrificed as to fit in as much horror in as possible. Plot flaws don’t so much reveal themselves while watching, it’s only afterwards while thinking the movie over in its entirety when things that didn’t really add up or were not fully explained become obvious.

The movie has a surprising number of tricks up its sleeve. As we leave the bathroom in various flashbacks, we learn more about our killer and the other scenarios he's conjured up for his hapless victims. We also get to know more about our two prisoners and their sordid secrets. The movie stumbles only a little towards the end as it slides into a chase and shootout finale before jabbing its last unexpected blow. Though it can get grisly at times, and director James Wan has a predilection for disturbingly fast camera movements during tense moments, this chilling movie is a constantly surprising and extraordinarily tense horror treat.

Wan manages to bridge straightforward shock slashers in the vein of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to more involved slow burning psychological movies like The Shining. While still acceptable, acting performances don’t let the viewer really care enough about the pawns in the killer’s game. But then again, how often does one really identify with protagonists in horror movies? I’ve often been known to hurl loud profanities at the idiot that refuses to take a gun to the basement with him. And I’m always happy to see the moron finally taken out of his misery. Darwinism in action.

What Saw might lack in terms of a truly clever thriller, it more than makes up for that by being a straight to the gut horror movie, adequately -- and gruesomely -- compensating for any lapses in suspense. The movie's catalogue of inventive atrocities and mind games succeeds in wallpapering its minor plot flaws away. Those willing to concentrate on the deliciously macabre setup will find plenty here to give them nightmares, as Saw's sadistic charms unfold with puzzle box precision. The result is a dark and exciting palette of violence and viscera that way outstrips most lackluster American horror movies of late.