Buzz Saw

July 15, 2005

Rated: NR Runtime: 98 min Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Buzz Saw is almost a great movie. Almost.

Buzz Saw The story focuses on two maintenance workers at Pea Tree Apartments. Pete (Heffernan) is a competent worker and a nice guy, but his life seems to be in a downward spiral due to his nightly drinking. His buddy, Cass (Wolfe), works with him in the shop, and is a less-than-stellar employee. He is also a junkie who regularly gets stoned with some of the residents at Pea Tree.

But everything’s not peaches, cream, drugs and alcohol at Pea Tree. Residents turn up dead on a daily basis, having been brutally murdered by power tools from the maintenance shop. The police can never find any solid evidence at the crime scenes, and Pete and Cass seem to always have alibis. There are two freaky looking kids in a treehouse who visit the murdered bodies and take notes, but nobody except druggie Cass seems to notice them.

While I was very interested in both the story and the acting performances, I found the script was very murky. Many details were either hard to follow or completely left out. I had to watch the commentary to figure out what the hell the ending meant. I laughed when the directors actually remarked that viewers would probably listen to the commentary because the ending is so unclear. I liked the ending after I understood what they were trying to do with it, but endings shouldn’t have to be explained.

The bonus features reveal a deleted story line involving “The Nulls”, a husband and wife who are residents at Pea Tree. They are the classic “robotic suburbanites” who Pete and Cass make fun of. I wish the filmmakers had left this thread in the movie, as it adds some much needed comic relief to an otherwise dark story.

You might notice that, other than the plentiful blood and gore, this movie scores pretty low in the Movie Vital Stats on the right. Don’t let that deter you from renting this one. It’s definitely worth checking out for the bizarre and unconventional story and some pretty solid acting performances.

Posted by Chris Terranova | Filed Under 3 Stars, Chris Grega, DVD, Dennis Garrels, Drama, Horror, Jason Allen Wolfe, Lisa Ann Harness, NR, Stephen J. Heffernan