Review: ‘Saw V’

Jeremy:

By the time the ‘Halloween’ franchise hit its fifth installment, it was introducing bumbling cops and playing Three Stooges-esque music. Â  By the time ‘Friday the 13th’ hit its part five, Jason Voorhees had been killed off, and they were seemingly auditioning for a new killer. Â  The ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ series jumped its shark long before the fifth installment, and ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Drem Child’ was perhaps the worst film of that franchise. Â  In fact, come to think of it, all of these series’ part fives were the worst films in the series. Â  So, it comes as a shock to learn that ‘Saw V’ is probably the best film of this series since the original.

This time around, Jigsaw has been dead for two films, and his second accomplice, Detective Mark Hoffman, must carry on the Jigsaw name. Â  However, he must contend with the possibility that someone knows who he is. Â  FBI Agent Strahm has a feeling about Hoffman, and much of the film is him going back through police files and piecing together how Hoffman was Jigsaw’s accomplice.

While this is happening, a group of five strangers wake up in a room devised by Jigsaw. Â  Their Jigsaw tape tells them that five will become one, and that, in order to survive, they must pull back from their instincts.

One reason why the ‘Saw’ franchise has been able to keep itself afloat after five films is this sense that the people behind them really care about it. Â  Screenwriters, Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunston, have been behind the past two films. Â  They really take the franchise seriously and do a good job of raising as many questions as they answer. Â  The ‘Saw’ series has turned into sort of a miniseries where you really need to have seen the previous films to get the full effects of the new ones. Â  Likewise, the new films bring about characters and elements that you know will carry over into the next installment, and that leaves us with an interesting mystery and interesting questions.

‘Saw V’ was directed by David Hackl, and it is the first time since the first one that a ‘Saw’ film was not directed by Darren Lynn Bousman. Â  He’s not missed. Â  What Hackl brings to the table is a great sense of atmosphere that was missing from three, previous films. Â  You really get the sense that these are real, solid traps that these people cannot escape from.

The ‘Saw’ series is also known for its immense amount of gore, and that is something else Hackl does well. Â  Don’t get me wrong, there is an extreme amount of gore in ‘Saw V’, but it’s never hammy and almost fake as it was in the Bousman films. Â  You see just enough to know what’s going on and to make you flinch, but Hackl never holds on the gore for a long period of time. Â  You’re never fully unsettled by it.

The best part of ‘Saw V’ are the parts where the story flashes back. Â  It shows us a sort of behind the scenes take on events that happened in all four, previous films. Â  It even takes us back to the first ‘Saw’ and answers questions that were raised there. Â  This is very interesting, and ‘Saw V’ would have been even better were we given more of it.

Instead, ‘Saw V’ throws us back and forth between the investigation and the series of traps the group is going through. Â  Hackl and editor, Kevin Greutert, who is also slated to direct ‘Saw VI’, do the best they can. Â  However, the story jars us when it goes from one story to the other. Â  It might even be worth it if there is a decent pay-off at the end that connects the two, but there isn’t.

And that leads me to the worst thing about ‘Saw V’, its ending. Â  Never mind the fact that all of the promotion for this film is saying how great and shocking the ending is. Â  If they mean in terms of blood, than maybe they have a point. Â  However, what i find more interesting would have been an ending akin to the previous films. Â  In all four, previous ‘Saw’ films, the endings were something that totally took you aback. Â  Maybe not so much in ‘Saw III’, but the mere fact that Jigsaw was dead at the end of it made up for the rest. Â  

In essence, the endings made you go back and rethink the entire film. Â  It really left you with the notion that you needed to see the film again just to see how it plays up to that ending.

With ‘Saw V’, and I don’t feel I’m spoiling anything here, the ending is just another trap. Â  It’s just another game for someone to play, and it’s just another character in the ‘Saw’ series making a stupid mistake that costs them dearly. Â  It is more like the ending to ‘Saw III’ than the others. Â  Knowing that the marketing was all about how “you wouldn’t believe how it ends”, I was expecting more.

That aside, ‘Saw V’ is still probably the best installment of the series since the first film. Â  The direction is excellent and gives the film the mood that is needed in a ‘Saw’ film. Â  Aside from a few details, the screenplay is also really good. Â  It answers a lot of questions we had about the previous films, but it also raises several more questions that will surely be answered in upcoming ‘Saw’ films. Â  

If you’re not a fan of the ‘Saw’ films, ‘Saw V’ won’t win you over. Â  However, if you’re a fan of horror and you’ve wandered from the ‘Saw’ films because they had gotten too ridiculous, it’s time to come back. Â  Having been taken out of the hands of Bousman is sure to do the ‘Saw’ franchise wonders. Â  Hopefully, ‘Saw V’ is the first of great series of horror films.

[rating:3.75/5]