Gag is a generic "Saw" wannabe.
When two thieves easily break into a Hollywood mansion, they figure it'll be a cakewalk. Things get interesting when they find a man bound, gagged, and beaten in one of the rooms. Their decision to help him is only their first mistake. It seems a serial killer who has taken a liking to torture has trapped them in the house. Needless to say, the killer does not have the best of intentions or plans in store for them.
Gag is so mind-numbingly rote that if one is not jazzed-up on caffeine, they might have difficulty staying awake throughout. The said thing is, the film runs only a little over 70 minutes and still is dull as can be. One problem is that the directing and writing by Scott W. Mckinlay and Kirk Sever respectively, presents what should be rather straightforward material in a fashion that can charitably be described as muddled. Together with the haphazard editing hack job by Michael Darrow that thinks that by copying the MTV style editing of the "Saw" films, only more emphasized, makes the film "stylish" and "hip." This is wrong as it makes the film almost incoherent at times.
The filmmakers also make the error of revealing the villain too early as well. The first "Saw" was ingenious in the way it kept the viewer wondering who "Jigsaw" was and even when you thought you had it, the film proved you wrong. Once revealed, the villain here becomes hilarious in the way he whines and postulates via goofy, impassioned speeches.
As for the torture aspect, it too is laughably done. I don't know about you, but I really have a hard time finding boiling pennies and then putting them on someone's skin anything more than a stupid trick middle schoolers would do to one another as a lame way of testing their so-called mettle.
On top of all that, the victims are about as dumb as a box of rocks. They are presented with numerous chances to escape that they, of course, don't take. Hell, even the front door of the house remains unlocked and unopened!
If being stuck in a house with dimwits sounds like entertainment to you, go ahead and rent this. That said, most will be moved to "Gag"ging within minutes of the stupidity.
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