Horror Movie Review: Saw VI

Saw VI

Starring: Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, Betsy Russell, Peter Outerbridge, and Tanedra Howard

Directed by: Kevin Greutert

Written by: Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton

Production Companies: Twisted Pictures, A Bigger Boat, and Saw VI Productions



After the first two Saw films, the franchise has been declining in value with each new installment and after my disappointment with Saw V, I wasn't sure I was going to give this one a shot. But in the end I had to, just for the sake of getting the entire story...and yes that means eventually I'll check out Saw: The Final Chapter.

Well, I can't go so far as to say Saw VI completely redeemed the franchise, but it at least got a little closer to being a satisfying viewing experience.

We start off, as always, with a death game where two bankers who loan money to people knowing they couldn't afford the interest and payments are forced to slice off pounds of fat. The goal is to carve more off than the other. The one with the most poundage of flesh lives, the other dies. A nice reminder to all that the Jigsaw killings are still continuing.

Then we proceed with the story. Jigsaw is still dead. Amanda, Jigsaw's first disciple, is still dead, but both return in flashbacks. Detective Mark Hoffman is continuing Jigsaw's work, but as far as a murderous legacy goes, he's pretty dim. He seems just to be following Jigsaw's instructions and not showing any creative flare in regards to who he is going to kill, or test, and how. Jigsaw's focus through Hoffman is insurance man William Easton. Easton refused to grant insurance coverage to Jigsaw's attempt at a cure for his cancer. Easton, a vice-president for his insurance company, had devised a formula to determine if a potential insuree was worth the risk and he stuck to that formula despite individuals attempts to explain why they aren't as risky as the formula suggests and that their lives are worth the risk. Easton epitomizes the American corporate tendency for banks and insurance companies to reduce a person's life down to cold numbers which makes it easier when making decisions which will affect someone's life. And at the beginning of Easton's trials, we are ready for him to hurt.

However, some of the trials don't seem to fulfill...Easton is certainly put to test and tortured, but always involving the people with whom he works. The problem is that we're not given a good reason why their lives should be at risk making it appear that Jigsaw has started killing innocent acquaintances of his primary target in the course of his trials. I don't remember innocents' lives being on the line any other time. And by the end, we want Easton to survive. He's learned his lesson and can go back and be a more humane insurance veep.

Hoffman, as Jigsaw, is a dunderhead and we want him to get killed because he's not very good at it. His ham fisted attempts to get the police to believe Strahm was the newest Jigsaw killer and hide the mounting evidence that Hoffman is the killer shows his lack of understanding of his own field, especially considering in Saw III where he is billed as Forensic Hoffman. He doesn't understand police work it seems, and doesn't understand the Jigsaw contraptions as seen when he tampers with one of the machines and is reprimanded and told that adjusting one things means other things need to be adjusted as well. Makes me wonder if Easton shouldn't have tried to just directly save his coworkers rather than playing the game. After all, maybe Hoffman screwed something up.

The trials for Easton were pretty interesting though, and that's the sell for a Saw film. But the appeal of the Tobin Bell Jigsaw, while still experienced in flashback, is gone for the annoyance of Hoffsaw. If only he had been killed in III rather than Amanda.

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Saw: The Final Chapter - Tanedra Howard returns in Saw: The Final Chapter. Insane, intense cruelty is the calling card of the Jigsaw killer (Tobin Bell), whose twisted spirit and terrifying human traps -- recalled in flashbacks following his death in Saw III -- inspire another installment of the hugely successful gore franchise. Led by fellow survivor Bobby Dagen (Sean Patrick Flanery), Jigsaw's past victims band together to support each other. Cary Elwes reprises his role as Dr. Lawrence Gordon.



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