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By JEFF MAKI
Trying to piece together the elaborate and ever-expanding game of the Saw franchise is like ... well, I can't even explain what it's like, but it's damn hard. The first three films are classics that I can watch repeatedly, but the latest installments, Saw IV and Saw V, lacked much of what made these great. Ever since the original writing-directing team of the first three films—Darren Lynn Bousman, James Wan and Leigh Whannell—handed the writing over to Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, the franchise has seen a rapid decline. Saw V was the low point, more of a transition film than anything else that easily could have been a direct-to-DVD release (the only one I haven't seen in theaters). So would the new writing team make amends for Saw V?
Yes! Saw VI not only redeems and resurrects a series that many thought was nearly dead, but it also mirrors many of the aspects of the two best films, Saw II and Saw III. When we left off in Saw V, Lt. Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) was no longer an apprentice but the new Jigsaw killer and seemingly in the clear. With Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) and Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith) dead, Hoffman—left with elaborate plans and instructions—was left carry on Jigsaw's legacy.
A huge problem with Saw V was the Hoffman character. He was unlikable and plain. In other words, Hoffman being the new “Jigsaw” was not only unbelievable but at times laughable.. So in Saw VI, Mandylor actually plays the Hoffman character this way. He's out of his league. He's scared and paranoid of being caught, a sloppy amateur trying to carry on the work of a mastermind. I thought he was great.
Bell and Smith reprise their roles as John Kramer (Jigsaw) and Amanda, shown once again through a series of flashbacks, in, around and in between the first three films. Between the flashbacks and multiple video tapes, Jigsaw gets a ton of screen time, which should make fans ecstatic.
The main “game” revolves around an insurance agent and his colleagues, with everything of course tying into Jigsaw's battle with cancer.
Saw IV and V's traps weren't all that memorable (save for the “pendulum” and the one that crushed Detective Mathews' head at the end of IV), but that's not the case here. A few of these, including the opening scene with the “flesh scale” trap, and the climatic and suspenseful “shotgun carousel” are two of the goriest and more ingenious of the whole series. And the gore. The gore and violence is upped and at its most disturbing since Saw III. (I wasn't this squeamish during a Saw film since the crude, makeshift brain surgery performed on Jigsaw in Saw III.) This time, we get limbs severed, flesh burned, skulls pierced, entrails and a shitload more.
As far as the twists, I can't say much without spoilers. Let me just say that the main twist is reminiscent of Saw II and III. Several other questions are answered and holes are filled, such as Amanda's letter from Saw III, Jill's inherited box from Saw IV, while even more things are revealed, making the whole more confusing and complex, or more complete and enthralling—you decide. The ending almost wraps things up, yet there are, of course, still several ways the writers could spin Saw VII. This is one I'll see again. And that's the first time I can say that since Saw III.
I know many gave up on this franchise after Saw V, and rightfully so, but give this one a chance. Even if you aren't blown out of your seat right after, it'll start to hit you when you get home later that night—trust me.
If there's one thing I've learned after six films of violent torture, puzzles, twists and turns, it's not that Jigsaw is a criminal mastermind or that the multiple writers of the Saw series are geniuses. Not even that Shawnee Smith is a nice piece— no, none of that. I've learned that if you own a pig mask and some sort of needle, it's shockingly—and I mean shockingly—easy to abduct someone.
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