Jigsaw (2002 Video) User Reviews

Take me back

[mynameisspeedcore · 4/10 · 2 July 2021]

Movies like this are the ones we used to watch back in a time where we wore black baggy jeans, donned spikey bracelets and watched alot of new direct to dvd horrors while consuming questionable substances.

As with all horror films from the 70s, 80s and 90s they all have aesthetics that are just unquestionably from their decade. I find this is true with early 2000s horrors. They have a distinctive feel and vibe to them that takes you back.

The movie is obviously not great, but it's a time capsule that reminds you of that awkward phase in your life when you would have thought it was the best movie ever. It has blood, guts and t*ts with very flimsy reasons as to why any of it is happening at all. There is also an unbearably creepy teacher who is one of the most uncomfortable-to-watch characters I've seen for a while.

In 2021 though; I appreciate it. Many movies released by the same label (Film 2000) have turned into guilty pleasures of mine. Other films include Bleed 2002, Skinned alive 1990, The Bunker 2001, Truth or Dare 1986 all have similar sentiments to them and you should check them out if you like schlock like this.

Surprisingly watchable

[Vomitron_G · 4/10 · 17 May 2011]

I thought about not even flunking this film, because for a recent Full Moon quickie it's not all that bad. But you do have to wait like 50 minutes to finally see some Jigsaw action. Still, the film certainly wasn't boring to me (though I can imagine to many it will be, since it's not really a gore feast). The Jigsaw-killer being built out of the traumatizing fears of the students was a nice touch, by the way. Hmmm... but then again: "The Fear" (1995), anyone?. Okay acting & cinematography, even, for a low budget fair like this. Cool ending that was both disappointing and satisfying at the same time. You figure it out.

Dumb ass plot saved (slightly) by above average acting

[Zbigniew_Krycsiwiki · 4/10 · 21 June 2013]

College art students construct a Frankenstein's monster-type of creature as part of their final exam, they each have to decorate a limb, and then tell all why it was decorated that particular fashion.

Mannequin is assembled with, among other things, a camcorder eye, and a circular saw blade and shotgun for hands. The plan is to barbecue this thing after completion, but mannequin doesn't like that idea, and somehow comes to life and stalks and hunts down those who tried to toast him.

The mannequin looks incredibly cheap, like something the workers in a department store tossed into the dumpster one night, and the gore scenes aren't much to get excited about either, but the acting is better than can be expected in such a low budget affair: Amy Bravo is gorgeous and can act quite well, her scenes are all highlights. Unfortunately, her character is killed off before the ending (in a death scene revealed in the trailer for the film!) Heroine Mia Zifkin is cute, too; it's too bad neither of them did anything else.

It's too bad also, that the film has such a crappy, inconclusive non-ending.

Put him together...he'll tare you apart!

[willywants · 5/10 · 26 June 2005]

After putting together a mannequin for a college art class, a group of friends get together to get really drunk and burn the mannequin, as part of college tradition. For no apparent reason, the dummy comes to life and begins killing off its creators one by one. Just looking at the DVD cover in the movie store, I knew "Jigsaw" wasn't going to be a high-art cinema masterpiece. If that's what you're expecting from this film, you needn't read further. If you're looking for a cheese-ball horror film to enjoy with some friends, read on.

This film actually had some things going for it. It's much more enjoyable than I expected. The characters are better developed than usual. The acting is kind of hit-or-miss, the actor playing the art professor was quite good, some of the others were alright and some were just "blah". The gore could have been a little better in my opinion. The blood looked really fake and there's really not enough of it (the little there is was shot in the dark and shown in really quick flashes), and as you'd expect there's little to no suspense.

So why did I enjoy "Jigsaw"? The pacing was good, it was cheesy (a plus in my book), and the filmmakers obviously knew the script they were working with wasn't a masterpiece, so the film never takes itself too seriously.

The ending cheap, but it will leave a smile on you're face nonetheless.

5/10.

Bad, bad, bad movie...

[jenny_bunny · 1/10 · 14 July 2004]

Whether you want to spend nearly 2 hours of your life watching this depends how you like your horror movies. If you like them so god damn awful they're hysterical, watch away. Jigsaw is without a doubt the worst movie i've seen in my life (and i've seen 'Long Time Dead'), and i say this as a fan of the low-budget horror/gore genre and having seen a good few to compare it to. I'm not even going to go into the specifics of what makes this movie was bad as it is, the only good thing about it is it's so so terrible it's one of the funniest things i've seen in years. If you can find this to rent cheap it's definitely worth watching, if you were involved in making it - shame on you. :o) IMDb need to introduce a 0/10 ranking especially for this movie, it thoroughly deserves it.

Don't waste your time

[jakielaj · 1/10 · 8 October 2005]

I love B movies..but come on....this wasn't even worth a grade...The ending was dumb...b/c THERE WAS NO REAL ENDING!!!..not to mention that it comes to life on its own...I mean no lighting storm or crazy demonic powers?? Slow as hell and then they just start killing off the characters one by one in like a 15 min time period...and i won't even start on the part of the thing killing the one guy without its head....and then you don't even get to see what Jigsaw even does with his so called "new jigsaw puzzle"....Unless you have nothing better to do...Id watch paint dry before Id recommend this God-forsaken movie to anyone else...oh and to make it even better the other movie totem you can see the guy throwing the one creature in the basement scene from the window..that was funny as hell and probably the only good part of watching that waste of film

Good for some laughs

[bebe22 · 1 September 2002]

I saw this movie during Flashback Weekend 2002 in Chicago. I had never heard of it, but I stayed for it anyway. At first, I regretted it because it seemed like the movie would be horrible. But as it went on, it turned out to be not that bad.

This movie starts out with this professor telling his students about a project they'll be involved in. The project is each of the students will get one part of a skeleton (not a real one, one used for something like a science class). The students will do something to that part of the skeleton to make it their own. (Like decorate it with things that mean something to them, etc). They will all get together the next Saturday night at a bar and put the pieces back together, hence the title "Jigsaw"

I won't tell anymore except for the killer is so ridiculous, you just have to laugh at its stupidity. If you wanna rent a cheesy movie, this one's great if you don't take it too seriously. Don't expect to scared by this, because if you did, that'd be even funnier than the movie.

this movie stinks

[russello · 1/10 · 23 January 2005]

I am not sure who is writing these

glowing reviews for this movie but trust me it STKINKS. I have seen hundreds of horror films and slasher flicks and this one is LAME it is only about 80min long and believe me that is all I could take. Plot is terrible, acting is even worse. And there is no development at all.

Even the David Cocteau films are better than this. RUN AWAY from JIGSAW . I expected to hate the acting, which can be forgiven in direct to video movies, if the plot is good.

This had no scares, very little Gore,

and a truly unattractive cast.

I watched this with three other friends

who I hope are still talking to me!

They wanted me to fling the disc out the window. I can not believe anyone could have

given this tripe a good review.

put the pieces back in the box, then burn the box

[MonolithicJudge · 1/10 · 12 January 2006]

We've all been there, sitting with some friends watching a bad movie, laughing at how terribly it was made and how poor the acting was; eventually the credits roll and everyone looks around and says "how is it possible such a movie was made? who paid money to have this script made into a feature film?" Well Jigsaw is not that kind of film, instead of asking how this garbage was budgeted you wonder why the makers were shot out of a cannon into the sun. Yes, Jigsaw is quite possibly the worst movie ever made or conceived, this coming from a guy who has seen Campfire Stories and Fever Lake. The film starts out in some kind of college class, what kind of class I am unsure, but it is imagined to be an art class. Now these dorks have been given a final project by their idiot teacher, five of them are given pieces of a mannequin and told to design it in any way they see fit, and since there are only five pieces the other students in the class receive and automatic A, oddly enough there are only six students in this entire class so the one goth chic gets a free A, good for her! A week passes and the five students, plus teacher, plus one hillbilly husband meet in a bar to discuss their and complete their project, they put the pieces together, head, arms, legs and inform the others why they chose their specifics designs, now these creative geniuses used the week to their full advantage, one puts a saw blade in the left hand, the other gets a sawed off shotgun, the right leg gets a bunch of broken ceramic glued to it and the left some magazine clippings, the head is the worst getting a camera in the eye, ala Hellraiser 3, with some bottle rockets for a stylish mo-hawk. After they have all spilled their guts about their specifics designs the now drunk teacher says they are to burn the mannequin, now aptly named Jigsaw. Now up to this point it has been standard horrible movie fair, bad acting, dialog and everything else, but has still been pretty plausible, yet after Jigsaw catches fire things take a turn for the worst...Jigsaw comes alive.. How you ask? I have no idea, he just does because the writers couldn't think of a realistic way for two pounds worth of molded plastic to become alive (Come on guys, a bolt of lighting, a traveling voodoo priest, anything could have worked.) So once Jigsaw comes to life he uses his new abilities of walking very slow and stilted with the use of his molded fingers to wreak havoc. First he kills the cool guy with some barb wire, this guy who was about to get it on with a hot chic decides drinking ground beer off in the distance is more important than what is in front of him. With him gone Jigsaw shoots the sexy girl in the face and then gives an old man a heart attack with a slight twist of his head, he then saws up a nasty looking southern woman and then her hillbilly husband; Jigsaw then kills the nerdy guy with some headless deception. Did I mention Jigsaw was taking body parts off his victims to make a human version of himself? No! Well its not important they don't even show his macabre creation, they don't even show him steal away a torso from his poor creators (Maybe he was trying to create the head detective from In Living Color). So after these five have been killed the teacher and the nerdy girl are all who is left, the teacher figures out that Jigsaw only needs a head to finish his masterpiece, since he is still uninterested in that torso thing. So being the coward he is the teacher ties up the girl as a sacrifice to Jigsaw who comes in only to go for the teacher with his electric buzz saw which isn't even plugged in. That is where the freaking movie ends, we don't even get to see the teacher get killed or what happens to the girl, let alone an explanation why Jigsaw came to life or how he cleaned himself off after being burned. This movie is so shameful it has too be seen, it is only 71 minutes so it is a small part of your day; For the memories of a lifetime, Jigsaw, Jigsaw, Jigsaw. Thank you Total Recall! The Judge has ruled, watch Jigsaw only if your plans of severing off your genitals seems played out.

disappointing if I'm honest

[nKLANCER00 · 2/10 · 8 January 2014]

I know I wasn't going to get a masterpiece with this movie, but I was expecting at least a half interesting, if not funny b movie, what we have here is a noticeable cheap flick with, for the name of the movie, doesn't involve much blood or actually sawing in the first place, don't be fooled by the front cover and summary like I was, it gives little enjoyment, the editing is choppy and the actors...well, you probably know what they will be like, they try they're best but it come off as being stereotypical cliché, its a movie that you can guess the entire plot and flow within the first 20 minutes or so.

unless you have bone grinding curiosity about this flick, I would give it a miss

Jigsaw Lets Jig it

[paul-clark1987 · 1/10 · 17 October 2007]

OK another film bought by me and Joe Swatman. OK this isn't the worst film i've reviewed this week but it still sucked royaly. we had a lot of fun watching this piece of crap.

The Monster Jigsaw is a mish mash of all these dysfunctional students ideas, u just know ur in for trouble when someone equips him with a buzzsaw and a sawed of shotgun, the film wasn't as gory as we hoped, i mean on of the deaths is a heart attack. Again i think the acting sucks, sum of the actors must be porn stars and one get into her undies for what ever reason.

The absolute worst part is the ending, it leaves it open for a bit of a Jigsaw 2 but thats never gunna happen lets face it.

My ratings:

funny 4/100 mock (how much fun we had mocking it) 73/100 acting 8/100 generally 12/100

cheesy b-movie horror, fun!

[abisse_land · 8/10 · 6 September 2002]

I saw this movie at the Flashback Weekend Premiere. For the obvious budget/talent constraints this movie was better than expected. I especially enjoyed the hottie who was constantly cracking wise, who made me laugh several times. I was sad when he got killed. Worth a rent if you enjoy corny low-budget horror.

Killer Maneqqin on the lose.

[drnrg31 · 7/10 · 4 April 2007]

As lame as my heading sounds, I actually liked this movie.

The plot itself is actually pretty interesting. Collin explains to his 5 students the premise for their final exam. He gives each one a limb from mannequin, so they can decorated anyway they like. In the end they will assemble the parts and create a "Jigsaw". They meet up at Sneaky Petes at the request of Collin to assemble the "Jigsaw", but before this, you must order drinks and explain the why you decorated it the way you did. Here is where character depth is achieved, but only through Tawny and Louis, because the rest of the students only reply with things like "It's just a f***ed up creepy robot head" Next they will have a bonfire and burn up "Jigsaw", who apparently does not like this part of the exam ,because he comes to life. How? Well, we are never really informed. Guess he just wanted to get out of the fire. For the next half hour the students are killed off one by one. The one part that p***ed me off about the movie is that we are never even shown what "Jigsaw" is doing with the parts that he is removing from each dead victim. Did I mention "Jigsaw" is an actual mannequin? The end itself is no surprise. The teacher, Collin turns out to be a jerk and sacrifices Valeri(our heroine) to save his own butt, which ,if you haven't already guessed fails miserably, because "Jigsaw" kills him instead. As I Read my own comments, I don't know why I enjoyed this movie so much? It must have been because of the Tawny character. She is rather stunning and does a great sort of table dance for the rest of the goons at Sneaky Petes. Her Boyfriend Todd is a total jerk for preferring beer over her. As she so quaintly puts it when she is left alone. "Hello, Hot Horny chick here" She also has the best story out of the 5 and prefers a no gore death scene. Did I mention she is pure sex candy without having a T&A scene?

Well, that's my take on "Jigsaw" Hey I like scary movies and this one is 100 times better than "Bleed" also full moon studio. Do I recommend it? Sure. Have fun with it. What other movie can you have a walking mannequin do the killings. Kane Hodder, watch out!

The worst movie I've ever seen, and it wasn't even funny

[kklewis2012 · 1/10 · 18 September 2021]

This was... actually the worst film I've ever seen. Before this I'd thought that "After"(2019) and "Hatchet" (2006) were the worst movies.

This was just a terrible art project of a film, and it wasn't even funny. By the time we finally got to the killings (in the last fourth of the film), I was rooting for the two or three semi-decent characters and the Jigsaw, the mannequin.

This was yet another film that was HEAVY with what's called "the male gaze", and as a woman, it's very annoying to see this and any other girl-objectification in any film. Y'all filmmakers-- quit doing that when you're making films!

(Spoilers) The plot leaves me with several questions. But if they'd been answered, then maybe the film would've turned out a bit better. What happens to the good girl at the end? How did the mannequin come to life in the first place? Was the professor crazy this whole time? If the professor had done this art project several times before, then did a mannequin come to life each of those other times? What made this time different?

Idk man. Like everybody else says, just don't waste your time.

A dummy of a film

[Leofwine_draca · 3/10 · 1 May 2021]

A poor showing from Full Moon Pictures, JIGSAW is a straight-to-video horror effort from 2002 that involves a group of art students who collaborate on a class display - a full-scale mannequin complete with camera for an eye that they display in a local bar. Unfortunately for them, the dummy turns out to be not such a dummy and comes to life in a murderous rampage. Most viewers know what to expect from Full Moon films, but there's less cheese here and more talk. Little happens for the first hour, just a lot of titillation and smalltalk, and then there's some mild gore towards the climax. The camera/eye design is a nice touch and perhaps a nod to HELLRAISER 3, but if you're looking for a better 'killer dummy' film you'd be advised to go back earlier to the likes of PIN or THE FEAR.

Timeless classic

[ofs-35374 · 4/10 · 11 December 2021]

Hilariously bad.

The premise is halfway intriguing - a mannequin is split between a group of students...one takes the head, one each arm, a leg etc and they have to decorate them individually before putting them back together to see what they create. The end product resembles a kind of steam punk tribute, which for reasons that are never explained, comes to life and hunts them down one by one.

What ensues is a completely ridiculous, yet strangely memorable story, containing some outstanding moments of unintended (!) humour and one liners that leave you wondering what anybody involved was trying to accomplish. "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy," is still my favourite line in any movie, and the scene where the couple are getting it on in the woods, when the bloke spots a beer ("Hey! Is that a beer?") and just wanders off is classic...

Not the worst movie I've ever seen, but definitely in the top (bottom) ten. Good luck finding it, and better luck watching to the end. Dud.

aweful everything

[kaefab · 2/10 · 13 December 2020]

Full moon went down the drain on this one big time, the budget did not help for sure.

bad acting, stupid line and stupid people, terrible filmed, and so much more.

Surprise it got a 3 rating kind of deserve lower.

One of the best horror films i've seen in the past 10years.

[richy23-1 · 10/10 · 31 December 2006]

Straight to the point, this is one of the best horror films i've ever seen. The storyline is gripping from the start till the end - and you'll want to see the movie again and again. The acting throughout is superb and this movie deserves 10/10. Whoever says it's rubbish and deserves 1/2 stars obviously did see the class throughout. Jigsaw is one of the best horror characters of all time, and i would say he's a better character than anyone in Saw 1,2 or 3. I would also say that Saw 1,2 and 3 are worse than this movie - this really sets standard for horror movies.

One of the Best Horror Movies of all time.

Take it for what it is.... Cheesy, campy fun...

[terrible2 · 6/10 · 26 November 2007]

Too many low budget horror films are mistakenly expected to be intellectual masterpieces of modern cinema. Sadly, many viewers are confused by this, but the truth is they are (low budget) and in many cases close to (no budgets). The directing team of Adams & Picardi are well known to work with next to nothing, and I think "Jigsaw" is what it's supposed to be: a low budget, fun horror flick. The story is goofy to begin with, a group of students embark on an art project of piecing together a mannequin. Being the troubled souls that they are, they use power tools and weapons as limbs, and would you believe it... It comes to life and terrorizes them. Nothing too thought-provoking or out of the ordinary here, it's a cheesy, fun film with some decent and dumb moments. The acting is solid, and I found it to be a fun little evening of mindless horror. If you take these films for what they are, you'll find them much more enjoyable...

it must hurt to die......

[NateF88 · 10/10 · 25 December 2002]

I loved this movie. It made me shiver. It was really well made for a low budget movie. I was at the premier at Flashback Weekend and met all the actors, it was fun. Anyway here is the correct plot (minor spoilers):

A college professor named Collin has in his mind the perfect final project of the semester: to split up a mannequin he names JIGSAW and give a separate part to a different student. Each student will take his or her part home and decorate it with something they fear or with something that means stuff to them. He chooses five student (or you could call them victims) to participate. One of them is joke Eddie, who always talks and never stops wise-cracking. The other is Tawny, my favorite character, who is really pretty. Another is Todd, who hates Eddie and likes Tawny. Another is Louise, who has an abusive husband named Art. Finally, there's Valerie, who Collin personally likes himself. All the other students that weren't chosen to be included in the project autimatically get an A and don't have to come to the final class.

All the students chosen decarate their part. Eddie is given the head, Tawny is given an arm, Louise is given a leg, Valery is given another leg, and Todd is given an arm. Well, for the final class, Collin and the other five students meet at a bar in the middle of the woods called Sneaky Pete's run by a nice old man. They present their different body parts they decorated and tell a story behind them. Todd puts a saw on the arm, which is the highlight of the movie. Well, they present their parts, put all of the decorated pieces bck together to form the mannequin JIGSAW. Collin is a heavy drinker, so he lets each student pick out any drink they want from the bar and the whole group must drink it as they tell their stories. Louise brings her drunk and abusive husband along, who plays games all night and makes sure Collin dosn't hit on Louise.

After they put JIGSAW together, they all go out in the middle of the woods in an open field and have a giant bonfire. Eddie had the most fun with the head, so he attached a working camera onto Jigsaw and made his hair fireworks, which makes him look like he has a mohawk. They burn JIGSAW, and the fireworks go off, then the class is over. So the students and Collin go back to the bar to just hang out and drink for the rest of the night with Pete, the nice owner, while some stay in the field to make out. All of a sudden, one of the students thinks they see JIGSAW's head begin to twitch or nod, and then the terror begins. JIGSAW comes alive, and is set out to make his own mannequin, made of pieces of the students or anyone that gets in his way.

I really did love this movie. I thought the plot was great, and it was scary. My favorite character was Tawny, she was also the most interesting, and i liked JIGSAW to. He was good. The violence and scary stuff dosn't start to happen until about 50 minutes through, but the story is very interesting nonetheless. I also thought it ended at the perfect moment. I know there will be some people who will be complaining about the ending and that it should have lasted longer, but what else do you need to know? It ended at the perfect moment (something most horror movies don't do). I loved this movie. did i already say that? It will be rentable at video stores, and make sure you rent it, you won't be disappointed. i hope they make a sequel.

Needed to go the extra mile

[Cking-2 · 7/10 · 22 January 2003]

This movie is polished and better written than most of the direct-to-video horror films that get released, but it falls short when the horror stuff is supposed to be happening. By that, I mean the gore; for a movie that has a monster with a sawblade for a hand marching about, I truly expected there to be limbs flying about! Maybe the filmmakers shouldn't have spent so much time on the other characters stories (or had less characters to begin with) and concentrated more on the action parts of the story...

Top notch movie!

[TempeFanClub · 10/10 · 23 October 2002]

JIGSAW is a great flick by the great horror duo, Don Adams and Harry Picardi. The premise is that a college class gets a project to each design a piece of a mannequin in the styles of their own fears. They assemble their collective pieces, which turns out twisted beyond any of the class would have expected... It has a buzz saw for one hand, a sawed-off shotgun for the other. One leg is a mess of broken dishes/pottery, with the other being made of newspaper headlines. The head is made of a video camera and several types of fireworks. Very cool!

The class ends up burning their creation in an effigy to release their subconscious and conscious fears. The creature comes alive (possibly through the practice of dark arts by "The Man With the Sombrero") and seeks to create his own Jigsaw creation using the pieces of the students.

Highly recommended for great script, acting, look, and the best soundtrack I've heard in any movie over the past several years. You must see this movie!!!

Nostalgia is a hell of a... something

[RHGifs · 6/10 · 4 March 2022]

Jigsaw isn't a great movie (or even a good movie) but if you look back on the early 2000s fondly, it's still pretty entertaining. This is more of a straight forward horror film than 3 AM's other stuff (specifically Vengeance of the Dead) and while there's nothing groundbreaking here, they do some cool stuff with a very low budget and don't take any of it too seriously. If you do end up watching this, it's worth the effort to find a copy of the DVD. The making of featurette is a hoot and definitely makes the film itself much more enjoyable.

Keeping Old-School Horror alive

[Dogg-3 · 10/10 · 2 July 2003]

I liked this movie. It was probably done on a limited budget much like many of the great clasic horror movies, but really captures the great feel that the horror genre was all about. A movie that I would love to see at at drive-in theatre. The monster/Jigsaw was fresh and interesting as were his victims. In particular I found the actress Maren Lindow to be very convincing not to mention perfectly attractive for this type of role. This is a horror picture that does not take itself too seriously that reminds of a time in the 1980's when these type of movies made person scream and then laugh. This movie is well worth a rent.

Arthur Simon (that's the REAL spelling, folks) takes the cake!

[bhuxen · 10/10 · 20 January 2003]

Arthur Simon really did a fine job on this one is all I can say. This guy is a star in the making. He was given the best death scene in the whole movie, and he MASTERED it. Also, I've watched Bleed, and it can't even touch Jigsaw. I think Jigsaw rules!