“Torture porn.”
The boogeyman of cinema, a genre completely and totally dedicated to the misery of others and clinical, realistic violence with little recourse or hope for survival from its protagonists. The term was coined by David Edelstein in 2006, used to describe films like Saw, Hostel, and The Devil’s Rejects. Films in which violence and cruelty were seemingly the point. Beginning in 2005 with the aforementioned Saw, this was a completely new phenomenon in that it took the brutal makings of grindhouse and splatter films into the mainstream. What was once a zero budget direct-to-video genre suddenly made $100 million and was subject to water cooler conversation. There’s almost the element of a dare intrinsic in asking someone if they want to watch a Saw film. A Nightmare on Elm Street is scary and violent in places, but it’s also lightly funny and fantastical in nature. The twist ending is spooky, but it’s nothing that’ll ruin your night. James Wan’s breakout debut Saw feels designed to do the exact opposite. In this piece I’ll be discussing all eight Saw films in detail as we gear up for Darren Lynn Bousman and Chris Rock’s Spiral: From The Book of Saw. If you have seen the films, read on and see if you agree or disagree with my analyses and if you haven’t feel free to get all caught up if watching eight hyper-violent movies in a row isn’t your thing.
There will be lots of spoilers to follow and talk of some pretty violent stuff present in the films, so squeamish folks be warned.
Saw
Arriving in 2004 to middling reviews and a whole lot of controversy, James Wan and Leigh Whannell took a hacksaw to the scream scene, announcing a new kind of mainstream horror that would soon overtake the genre. Franchises like Friday the 13th, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween, and A Nightmare on Elm Street borrowed liberally from the Saw mold, applying a grimy ultraviolence and garish aesthetic where there was once a more audience friendly execution. Frankly, it became that execution and quickly oversaturated the genre as much as the Saw series would eventually come to oversaturate itself with sequels. None of its imitators could quite replicate Saw, however, for one important reason… they lacked the batshit, full-tilt commitment to story.
Upon revisiting Saw in 2021 prior to the release of franchise re-up Spiral: SAW, one might be surprised how relatively light on gore it actually is. While the series would eventually become infamous for its cold-open traps, Saw opens much more quietly. The series’ first (and best) protagonist Adam played by Leigh Whannell falls out of a filthy bathtub, drenched, onto a somehow even filthier floor in a, get this, EVEN FILTHIER public bathroom. To make matters worse, a dead body lies in the middle of the room, engulfed in a pool of blood, holding a cassette player. The room is dark and the dread of such an ordeal immediately sets in. When Adam meets his bathroommate Lawrence, played by Cary Elwes, the lights soon flicker on and questions are answered with more questions as the plot begins to unravel itself. The two take the cassette player and we’re given our first “I want to play a game” monologue. In order to live the two must play that game and hope to come out of it alive and as unscathed as possible.
This claustrophobic plot soon gives way to a parallel storyline that is ostensibly a police procedural meant to walk the audience through the game that has been laid out for Adam and Lawrence. It’s a smart bit of storytelling that showcases Leigh Whannell’s penchant for dizzying misdirects, pulling us closer and further away from the truth on a moment-to-moment basis. We learn that Adam and Lawrence have been targeted by a serial killer named Jigsaw, who seeks to fill in what he sees as missing puzzle pieces in his victims. He believes that those he has chosen do not value their lives and in facing down his traps and playing his games, he will give them renewed purpose or punishment based on their success. This is the template that is followed from here on out in the series and the film provides us with the imagery and iconography the series would become known for. We have Billy The Puppet, oft confused as being Jigsaw, but functions in a more theatrical way, serving as his literal mouth as well as just being really fucking creepy. We’re also introduced to the series’ most famous trap, the Reverse Bear Trap, worn by Amanda who is far from her last encounter with Jigsaw and whose sequence set the stage for the hyper stylized, high-anxiety traps that would define the series. Shot with cold blues and dark greens as Amanda furiously tries to get the device off with blaring music and the camera flying all around her in fast motion(?) with the series’ first test of audience nerves.
An entire piece could be dedicated to the plotting and legacy of this first film, but to put it simply, this is likely the best of the series and sports what would become a signature jaw-dropping twist, cranking the Saw experience to an 11. Lawrence manages to cut off his foot and promises Adam that he’ll return with help, but both Adam and the audience know he’ll bleed out before he reaches anyone. It is with Adam now alone in the room that the film’s most horrifying moment comes. That body in the center of the room, presumably dead? He’s been alive the whole time, running the show and hearing Cary Elwes’ and Leigh Whannell’s terrible American accents. It’s a show-stopping moment that is effective to this day and Jigsaw’s thunderous “GAME OVER” as he slams the door shut on a still trapped Adam is a twist even the most ardent Saw detractors have to give credit to. This is a film operating on a moment-to-moment basis which means it would always be defined by its finale. It’s game over announced that it was anything but as a horror landmark was created and a series, inevitable.
Saw II
After the runaway success of Saw, Lionsgate immediately fast-tracked a sequel. Due to James Wan and Leigh Whannell being busy with their underrated Dead Silence at the time, first-time film director Darren Lynn Bousman was brought onboard with his original script initially entitled The Desperate that was retrofitted as Saw II with rewrites by Whannell and Wan. What’s most notable about the sequel is its dramatic increase in violence and traps, that, while retaining the mystery of Saw, was intentionally designed to let audiences see all of the gore this time around. Saw was the template, but it was Saw II that would define the franchise and set the course for its many sequels. It was unapologetically horrifying and cruel, launching its characters into complex, brutal traps designed to be watched through your fingers. It’s the kind of film that leaves an auditorium of people gasping, laughing, and screaming as blood flies and plot twists spiral out of control.
In a fascinating subversion, the film’s plot actually begins with the capturing of Jigsaw in his workshop. We learn that he is dying of cancer and conducting what seems to be his last game. This time around our protagonist is Detective Eric Matthews, in a race against time to stop Jigsaw’s next game being held at a secret location and whose son is one of the unlucky contestants. As the game unfolds in shockingly violent fashion with bodies falling left and right, Jigsaw and Eric Matthews engage in a sort of mental cat and mouse game. Jigsaw is known for always being a thousand steps ahead and he peppers his monologues with clues and secrets to the game that are as frustrating to Eric as it is to the audience. We learn that not only is Jigsaw punishing the victims of his game for their moral failings, but Detective as well. As each victim was imprisoned due to Eric planting evidence. By the end, once Eric has beaten Jigsaw halfway to death, he is able to locate the house where the game is being played only to find out the game had already been played long before their encounter. The surveillance footage they had been watching was previously recorded and his son had survived and been locked in a safe in Jigsaw’s workshop. This is all unbeknownst to Eric however and while still searching the empty house for his son he is knocked unconscious by series villain Pighead, revealed to be none other than Amanda, victim of the two films. We learn she has worked with Jigsaw since surviving the Reverse Bear Trap and now serves as his apprentice. Eric is taken to the infamous bathroom from the first film and left for dead, while Amanda delivers the “GAME OVER” closing line.
After the shocking twist in Saw it was hard to imagine a sequel measuring up, but Saw II comes damn close, once again leaving audiences shocked with a downbeat ending that created what would have to be a tradition and memorably nasty kills, the most notable being a pit of dirty syringes with maybe the biggest ick factor of any Saw trap. As much as people come for the gore, a precedent has now been set of consistently wild plotting and twists to give you something to talk about on the drive home. Saw had successfully made the jump to a franchise, despite a decline in quality and poor reviews. It did what it needed to do and audiences wanted more.
Saw III
What was once the trilogy capper, ”the third and final” Saw entry arrived in 2006 on the heels of the massively successful Saw II with the singular goal of going out BIG. And had this actually been the final installment, it would have been a properly wild one with the ante upped once again in respect to, well, everything. The traps are fucking gnarly here, with my personal “favorite” The Rack, which has a man on an iron cross, with each of his limbs slowly turning until they are no longer attached to his person. It is as excruciating to watch as it sounds. There’s also a surprising amount of time dedicated to the relationship between Jigsaw and his apprentice Amanda, making this the most personal Saw film yet. Previous installments had a very intentional amount of time dedicated to Jigsaw and how he came to become the serial killer he is in order to better round out what had become an immediately iconic horror villain. After Saw II in which we presume him to be dead after a brutal beating from Detective Hoffman he returns in his worst shape yet, dying quickly from his cancer as his final game commences. Amanda kidnaps a doctor, who is placed in a device that will detonate and kill her should Jigsaw die before the end of his latest game. And in that game, this time we are given an interesting spin with the central victim not being directly in any of the traps, but rather serving as the key to other victims’ escape. The catch is these victims all had roles to play, of varying size, in the death of his child. The idea is to test how far the man can and will go to save the lives of those who took a life from him. It’s an interesting setup that gives way for many anxiety-inducing traps, but it also means we are frequently pretty damn annoyed by Jeff’s reluctance to help in certain situations where anyone else would likely help immediately. Jeff instead will wait around and yell at the victims about the role they played and while it’s understandable to be upset at these people for their actions, it’s made abundantly clear that these people are all either sorry or made a mistake, calling Jeff’s own morals into question frequently. Which sometimes frustrates and other times makes for compelling and just plain disturbing moments. All while the kidnapped doctor fights to keep Jigsaw alive, performing various gruesome procedures with ill-fitting tools to say the least. It’s another step down in the franchise on a quality level, but somehow also a step up and step in the direction of the truly nuts plotting of later films. By the time the twist rolls around it’s as if we’ve been on a bloody, emotionally unnerving rollercoaster ride preparing for its final drop and the film decides to throw several twists at us at once in almost hilarious fashion. Amanda reveals she has lost faith in Jigsaw’s philosophy and had been rigging traps to kill victims with no way out, she kills the doctor, who turns out to be Jeff’s wife, who then kills Amanda and Jeff fails his final test by enacting revenge on Jigsaw by killing him with a power saw. Deep breath. It’s as if returning director Darren Lynn Bousman knew he couldn’t top the sheer surprise factor of Saw and Saw II and decided instead to blow up the entire game, making for an ending that isn’t as simple and smart, but shockingly chaotic, which is honestly pretty effective too. It’s a fitting, if uneven, end to the saga. Right?
Saw IV
Don’t call it a comeback! Seriously, don’t.
Only a year later Lionsgate and Darren Lynn Bousman returned with another entry in the Saw franchise, riding high after a gargantuan $165,000,000 on a budget of only $10,000,000. One can only imagine the unanimous show of hands when debating continuing the series after a showing like that and so the game continued. Only this time, Leigh Whanell stepped away from writing duties and the film suffered a pretty remarkable drop in quality. Though it’s hard to blame new scribes Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan given the herculean task of continuing a series whose narrative had decidedly ended not even a year into production. The series’ iconic villain Jigsaw had been violently killed in a way that made any retcons or “well actuallys” completely impossible. Hard to come back from a buzzsaw to the neck, ya know?
But they certainly tried their damndest and it resulted in Saw IV, a shark jumping endeavor where Jigsaw is revived via stomach microcassette (in an incredibly graphic autopsy scene) and the game will go on! This time around we follow Officer Rigg, a detective whose obsession with saving Jigsaw victims is put to the test, in order to save victims in individual traps and a larger game being played. This larger game features the return of Donnie Wahlberg as Detective Eric Matthews who was saved by Jigsaw after presumably being killed by Amanda in the previous film. Here he is trapped with another Detective who will both be killed should Officer Rigg fail his test. Most interesting about this game is that rather than being played in one setting like usual, it spans various locations as Officer Riggs races against time and comes into contact with criminals in traps who Jigsaw seeks to convince Riggs aren’t worth being saved. It is in this film that we then meet Jigsaw’s ex-wife, Jill Tuck, and are given further backstory on why he does what he does. In a flashback, a pregnant Jill runs a rehab clinic where one night a patient, Cecil, breaks in and on the way out, slams the door on her stomach, causing a miscarriage. Enraged, Jigsaw isolates himself from Jill and the world, creating his first trap in which Cecil is his first victim. Upon the discovery of the location of the game, Riggs reaches it and triggers a trip that kills Detective Eric Matthews with two giant ice blocks slamming into his head and electrocutes the other detective. Riggs is shot and dies from his bullet wound as he listens to Jigsaw’s final tape revealing the victims would have lived had he not attempted to save them. In a final twist the second detective who had been electrocuted steps out of the trap and reveals himself as Jigsaw’s newest apprentice and soon to be wildest character in the series. It’s an okay twist, but at this point there’s really no reason why we’d be invested in such a reveal of a character with so little development up to this point. More than anything it feels like an unfortunate byproduct of Jigsaw’s early series death and a sign of the mistake it was. After the confidently bold and nasty direction of the previous two entries, series veteran Darren Lynn Bousman is clearly just a bit less creatively in the zone here. Even the traps aren’t as interesting, feeling a lot less memorable and a bit bland, which is a wild thing to say about a film that’s still as gory and brutal as this one. I can’t tell if it’s my own desensitization 4 movies in or if it truly is just a bit less brutal and more cartoonish. The plotting is also appropriately gonzo, but nowhere near levels previously seen. It’s Saw on autopilot and the first proper misstep in the series.
Saw V
But hey, what’s a misstep if not a chance to find one’s footing again? In Saw V’s case, a massive tumble. What is easily my least favorite film in the franchise, Darren Lynn Bousman bows out of directorial duties and hands the reins over to series production designer and second-unit director David Hackl for what is unfortunately my least favorite film in the franchise. This time around Jigsaw is presumably dead and gone, leaving apprentice Detective Mark Hoffman to take up the mantle and continue his work. Mark Hoffman’s introduction in Saw IV is when the series begins to convolute itself quite spectacularly with constant flashbacks and ways in which we learn how he fits into the larger Saw universe, in an attempt to bring him to the level of Jigsaw, but it’s never really enough. It’s not that the films have particularly lost so many of the components that made them such ridiculous guilty-pleasures, it’s that they only needed to lose one to spoil future installments. Tobin Bell’s performance as John Kramer/Jigsaw is so quietly compelling and sinister, there’s just no substitute for it. This is furthered by the fact that the filmmakers themselves know this and contrive new ways to use his voice out of fear that the iconic “I want to play a game” will lose that magic touch that makes it creepy every single time. This is when Saw goes from silly to nonsense.
Here we begin with the most interesting thing the film does, which is place Detective Mark Hoffman firmly in the lead, as we go along for his evil ride. The game this time brings back the group game dynamic from Saw II as strangers must work together to survive. This setup is great for Saw because it means maximum character interaction, conflicts, and deaths as well as a feeling of unpredictability. This is wasted on Saw V’s rather bland traps which even as I write this, I have a hard time recalling. Most interesting about this game is the revelation that all of them could have survived had they simply worked with, rather than against, each other. But again, this isn’t new territory for the franchise. What Saw V ultimately has going for it then is the fact that Mark Hoffman is a deeply weird choice for a protagonist. He’s not especially interesting, but he’s played with such menace at all times by Costas Mandylor that he’s pretty entertaining to watch. In scenes where he is meant to be hiding his Jigsaw identity, he will expound on the ideology and sneer at others in such a way that screams guilt, but no one is the wiser. The only person on his trail is Agent Peter Strahm who Generic Cop™’s the hell out of the proceedings and when coming face to face with Hoffman in the end, dies via a brutal crushing between two closing walls. The twist being that had he stepped into a glass coffin per Jigsaw’s instructions’ he’d have lived. It might be the plainest twist of the series thus far, leaving one with a profound sense of “… okay.”
By the 5th installment, with as much story as there is and the poster’s tagline “you won’t believe how it ends” there’s really no excuse. The Saw series is known for its deadly seriousness and the ultraviolet grimness of it all, but there is no reason to believe the creators weren’t aware of how absurd everything was up to a certain point. I refuse to believe the ending of Saw III was done with complete humorlessness behind the scenes. Despite the fun to be had with Saw IV and V, it was clear to everyone at this point that the series was in serious trouble.
Saw VI
Leave it to the literal 6th installment in a horror franchise to somehow shake up the proceedings and deliver a shockingly good entry. What should’ve been the death knell of the series instead is perhaps the most fun, dynamic entry up to this point. It is far more clever and creative than the series had been in quite some time and makes good on going absolutely bonkers with the lore. Kevin Greutert makes his feature debut with a conviction and energy that had been lost since Saw III. The Saw series has always struggled with the question of its own morality, derived from a post-9/11 culture that was a bit too keen on the series for some’s liking. Especially when Saw had so often made questionable statements regarding morality that was nonsense at best and reprehensible at worst. With the premise that it has, there’s no real way of stepping out of that moral quandary, so what Saw VI smartly does is attempt some actual social commentary. It’s not particularly great or meaningful in a film that still has its sight set on blood, guts, and twists, but it’s certainly fascinating to watch and more thought-provoking than one would expect.
This comes about pretty much immediately as the victims of this installment’s opening trap are predatory lenders who are being punished for handing out loans they know people can’t pay back, which Jigsaw is pretty pissed about. The lenders have to literally pay an arm and a leg with a trap that weighs the amount of flesh they cut off, leaving the one who’s lost the most flesh the winner. It’s a creative, brutal concept in a film that follows suit all the way to the end. Detective Hoffman is still on the run, conducting what would seem to be the final game as laid out in Jigsaw’s will left to his wife Jill. This game continues Jigsaw’s rage against the machine, with a health insurance executive and his predatory employees rounding out the list of victims. We learn that the health insurance executive, William Easton runs a company utilizing an algorithm which denies coverage for a large majority of clients’ medical treatments. One of them turns out to be Jigsaw, hoping to try a treatment that is denied by Easton. During the game, we get series best traps like a boiler room spitting steam at one of Easton’s employees who he must navigate through the maze and the shotgun carousel which does exactly what you think a shotgun carousel does. It also features some of the scariest utilization of Billy the Puppet, with an excellent and over the top jump scare which ends with him basically flying away. It’s really crazy stuff and Greurtert isn’t afraid to go big and silly, while shooting it with surprisingly dynamic cinematography that doesn’t lose the essential nastiness of the series’ palette. This is also one of the more story based of the series since perhaps the first Saw, flashing back and forth through time to provide explanations as to how everything fits together and doing so surprisingly well.
Mark Hoffman, feeling before like a weak Jigsaw replacement, is much more fleshed out here. By the end we also finally see his act come to an end with the discovery of his Jigsaw helming, resulting in a visceral, brutal scene in which he kills a room of colleagues and lights the evidence on fire. It is then that we get our first twist and an interesting utilization of Jill, who is tasked with carrying out Jigsaw’s final wish: testing Hoffman. In a fantastic twist-climax scored to the all-too familiar and classic Charlie Clouse score, insurance exec William Easton gets one of the most brutal kills of the franchise with dozens of acid-filled syringes injected into his body and melting it in half. Not long before Jill captures Hoffman, straps the reverse bear trap to him and leaves him for dead. It is here that my favorite moment of the franchise occurs in which Hoffman breaks his wrist to escape his trap, catches the reverse trap on window bars moments before it opens, and finally cuts open the side of his mouth to get his head out of the trap. It’s a moment of sheer Terminator-like indestructibility and absurdity that also just looks damn cool and gross, closing on a shot of Hoffman yelling to the sky with half a face.
There isn’t a single Saw film with what can be described as “good” reviews, but after disastrously low ratings for previous installments, Saw VI marked a notable critical improvement and fans were just as enthusiastic. The same can’t be said for general audiences who largely skipped this installment, opting instead for the new, shiny Paranormal Activity which was taking the world by storm. In a 2000’s horror moment defined by Saw and its ilk, it seemed as though the favor of audiences was shifting towards less gruesome pictures, that were perhaps not so overcomplicated. Even James Wan and Leigh Whannell, series creators and longtime shepherds, had moved onto more ghostly features with soon-to-be smash hit, Insidious.
Saw 3D: The Final Chapter
When a franchise begins to near the end of its life cycle, there’s no better way out than a grand final chapter promising a conclusion to those who stuck around and anyone curious to watch the ending. After 6 years of back-to-back-to-back entries, Saw’s time had come. Originally intended to be two final films, Saw 3D represented a sort of mishmash of a million different ideas, agendas, and frustrations behind the scenes. Saw V director David Hackl had been announced as director originally and was deep into production before being dismissed suddenly and with no press explanation. Because of this, Kevin Greutert, who was preparing to direct Paranormal Activity 2, was apparently forced into directorial duties due to a contractual clause. This was much to the dismay of Kevin Greutert and led to rewrites only 2 weeks prior to shooting, after the majority of set-building and rehearsals had taken place. On top of that, shooting in 3D proved especially difficult and with so little time in production, resulted in an almost distractingly flat image, save for when items came flying towards the screen. A joyless misfire for seemingly all involved, Saw 3D represented a new low for the franchise.
Picking up immediately after the events of Saw VI, Mark Hoffman, having just survived his test, seeks revenge against Jill Tuck. In a series that had otherwise been fairly equal opportunity in its violence and cruelty, there’s a strange misogynistic bent to this installment with the opening trap featuring two wronged men with the same girlfriend teaming up to kill her in a trap and Jill Tuck being killed not once, but twice. With one of those times being a dream sequence in which she is dressed and shot with an embarrassingly transparent male gaze. I’m sure there are Saw fans who would dismiss this in a series known for bad taste, it just struck me as odd given that it hadn’t really been a problem before as far as I could tell. Which can perhaps be attributed to the entire film taking on a borderline cartoonish feel with traps that are over-complicated and designed even by Saw standards, completely ridiculous characters, and the horrendous 3D styling which provides some of the series’ worst moments. Saw has always been about moment-to-moment thrills and chills, but this is a film so concerned with its stupid ass gimmick that there was never any way it’d be watchable after its theatrical run and dates the film instantly. Not only that, but those problems they had shooting in 3D are painfully apparent with some of the most flat cinematography I have ever seen in a major motion picture and some of the worst color grading too. It’s as if they took the series aesthetic and drained any and all life from it. Fitting I guess.
On Mark Hoffman’s pursuit of revenge, we meet this film’s protagonist Bobby, a self-help motivational speaker claiming to have been a Jigsaw victim inevitably ending up where he lied about being. It’s a genuinely interesting concept, but is played flatly by Sean Patrick Flannery, who is given the now rote task of freeing others in the game itself. There isn’t much to be said here plot wise until the very end in which Hoffman puts Jill in the reverse bear trap, this time succeeding and gore flying at the screen with strangely pink blood that mires the entire film. Hoffman burns evidence linking him to Jigsaw and leaves before being caught and beaten by figures dressed as Pighead. One of whom is revealed to be Dr. Lawrence Gordon of Saw, played once again by Cary Elwes. The big twist this time being that Lawrence was taken under Jigsaw’s wing following the events of the first film and has been helping to orchestrate traps the entire time behind the scenes. Lawrence takes Hoffman to the bathroom from the original film and chains him up to a pipe, damning him to the same fate that befell Adam, with the famous “GAME OVER” followed by door slam. Roll credits.
It’s an ending so bizarre and contrived, it almost works if you manage to not think about it for even a second after the film is over. Such a twist might have had some level of at least fun absurdity if not for how abrupt it feels. And with that, the Saw series had come to a semi-conclusive ending. Reviews were worse than normal and fans weren’t happy either. It was and still is widely considered the worst film in the series and with the death of “torture porn” as a genre, it really was game over for Saw.
Jigsaw
Of course it had to happen again. With the resurrection of innumerable IPs in the mid-to-late 2010s, it was only a matter of time until another crack was taken at Saw. Honestly, this time seemed a bit promising too. At the helm were The Spierig Brothers, known for Daybreakers and Predestination, two critically successful films that would point to a fair chance of Jigsaw doing similarly. In press leading up to release the brothers described it as a slicker, more fun rejuvenation of the series that would open the door for sequels should it perform well at the box office. It ended up with the 2nd lowest box office take of the franchise, meaning that once again the series would be put out to the pasture until further notice.
As for the quality of the film, fans are seemingly pretty adamant about it being the worst in the series and reviews weren’t much better. Watching it in 2017 on release I found it pretty bad, but on rewatch I found myself appreciating the slickness of it and how different it felt from previous entries. There’s something to be said about deviating too much from a series’ core stylings, but frankly after 7 entries, I think there’s something to be said about shaking things up.
In that same vein, the film begins very differently from your usual Saw, with an action packed chase atop a building resulting in a shootout. It’s briskly filmed with none of the grime or shakiness of previous installments feeling very much like a studio horror film, for better or worse. The culprit being chased is revealed to be a new player in Jigsaw’s once dormant game. Bodies are strewn all over the city, causing that classic race against time to stop the game before more lives are lost. The game this time takes place in a barn and feels more restrained than previous entries with simpler traps and the classic group game dynamic that results in a film I found myself actually enjoying more than Saw IV, V, and 3D. There is also an injection of humor in the proceedings which may not always be great, but given that Saw has always been inherently silly, it’s nice to see it formally tapped into. And of course the return of franchise hallmarks such as various traps and a redesigned Billy The Puppet, sporting glowing red eyes is fun. John Kramer’s inevitable return is also perhaps the best scene of the film, lending credibility to the film as a true addition to the franchise. You get the sense that the directors are genuine fans of the franchise and are all-in on the twists and turns between the violence. The twists and turns themselves are just a bit lacking in imagination however, with it finally being unveiled in the end that the game took place 10 years prior and the lead detective is yet another Jigsaw apprentice conducting a new game. It’s something of a mishmash of previous twists, which in all fairness, on the 8th installment I think any director would struggle to come up with a truly shocking twist.
Spiral: From The Book Of Saw
As of writing this, I have yet to see the latest Saw installment featuring the return of Saw II, III, and IV helmer Darren Lynn Bousman, with a story treatment by Chris Rock who also stars. As with Jigsaw, there’s plenty of talent here to suggest a proper reignition of the classic series, but here’s hoping for a film that makes good on that promise and delivers a bloody twisted time at the movies.
