"Saw: Heritage" is a Greek live action short film from 2016 written and directed by Christos Arfanis, who was only 20 when this was released. In order to have the film also seen by international audiences they decided to go for the English language though, even if Arfanis is obviously Greek and so are the actors in here. From the title you can already see what big film/franchise this short is linked to and the second word tells you that it is an aftermath story that takes place after the movie(s). I am not too familiar with "Saw" to really make more specific statements here, but I must say it felt nothing really like the film universe in which it takes place. It's alright though. It does not have too. I am not too fond of the idea that they use a big name franchise to promote their movie, especially if they use the name of said franchise in the title, but they can do so if they deliver quality. Quality in the sense of individual talent that does not necessarily have to do with the franchise. This is not the case here either though. Honestly, if there wasn't the mention of a famous character (you see her in the credits) and also a really brief flashback sequence that includes here, this would be 0% Saw. Instead I thought of the movie "Requiem of a Dream" on one or two occasions and now I read here on imdb this was no coincidence, but actually intended because the director is a fan of said Aronofsky movie and it is indeed a tribute to that one. So it felt much more like "Requiem for a Dream" to me than "Saw". As for the story, we have a guy silently enter into another guy's house and provide him with drugs, cocaine among others. Next the intruder vanishes and the addict consumes said drugs before there is another meeting at the very end. It was not working for me really. I would say for a 20-year-old it is an okay achievement, but as we are supposed to rate by general standards here, I cannot give this film a thumbs-up. It's not a failure, but it looks fairly amateurish most of the time and takes itself more seriously than it has any right to. The acting is okay at best too, here and there over the top. I see Arfanis has been really prolific in the not even five years after his very first filmmaking credit ever we have here, so I hope he already stepped things up since then and will keep dooing so in the future. I wouldn't mind him turning into a similar talent like Lanthimos one day. However, his film here, which runs for under 10 minutes (including a for this running time massive 90 seconds closing credits), gets a thumbs-down from me. Not recommended, unless you really want to see everything that has the slightest connection with "Saw".
