SAW V (2008)

You know the Dealio here, t'was another Halloween (my Birthday actually) and another outing for Liongate's longest running franchise. With the fourth instalment ending like it did, things had to get much more complicated in order to continue (as our main Villain died 2 films ago).

We start off by seeing a man strapped to a table with a giant bladed pendulum swinging above him, unlike most SAW traps before it though, after crushing his hands (as per Billy the puppet's instructions) he is not released from his restraints, and goes on to be cut into 2. Cut to Agent Straum EXACTLY where we left him in IV, as he winds up in a trap himself shortly after (if my review sounds rushed, it's only because I'm describing literally how the movie played out) we then get to see more flashbacks inter-cut with the current players, 5 seemingly unconnected people being told to work together to overcome their predicament. Instead of focusing on Jigsaw's motivation this time around (as that was well covered last time) we're shown the journey his assistant took to get to this point, (don't worry, this isn't a SPOILER blog). These three premise's inter-wind and culminate at the very end (with the signature twist franchise fans have come to expect)

Now...ABOUT that twist. I remember the tag line in the Trailers at the time being "you won't believe how it ends" so i was expecting my reaction to be "HOLY MUNCHKIN MIDGET FUCK! where has my brain gone?" but instead it was more akin to "oh.. I get it". There was a lot of set up in this film for an extremely weak pay off, also with an ever increasing budget per film (and the franchises third director David Hackl) it's much more clean feel is drastically changing the aesthetic of the original premise (dark, dirty and deadly) and what the FUCK is it with the CG blood? how much do blood squibs possibly cost?

Conclusion:IV writers Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan definitely deliver us the series' weak point, some of the traps were kind of cool but the 5 people in the main game are utterly one dimensional and only communicate when the audience needs to be told something, also, too many jumps between past and present gets annoying AND confusing. the film doesn't succeed as a SAW film or a Horror/Thriller, purely as gore. 3/10

SAW II (2005)

So begins the slew of sequels, following hot on the heals of the first, SAW II was released just a year later, in many ways it was the original SAW film in the sense that it set the template for the rest, and features the traps and "players" in equal measure as Jigsaw and his accolades.

Instead of a measly 2 guys, directer/co-writer Darren Lynn Bousman teams up with original screenwriter Leigh Wannell to bring us a roster of 7 people, each seemingly with a dark past, once the game begins the heat is on to find a cure to the nerve gas being pumped into them through the ventilation system, while outside the house we finally see Jigsaw being "caught", but is that all it seems?
we see Jigsaw<(Tobin Bell) having a back and fourth with Cop Eric Mathews (Donnie Wahlberg, brother of Mark) and discover that Mathews' son is one of our house-mates. connections between the group start to become apparent, but it is not until the end we find out how important Eric was to the rest of the group.

While lacking the first's claustrophobic nausea, the second one does spread it's wings a little, the victims had a chance to explore their surroundings, and a sort of anti-group dynamic was allowed to form, no time for love interests or comradery, these people seem to be more interested in saving themselves. that said, given the bigger scope of the film it brought with it the negatives that would plague the remaining sequels, the more technical something is the more variables there are, and a lot of what the group do or decide appears to be way too circumstantial.

Conclusion: though in contention for the best of the sequels, it can't match up to the first for depth, emotion of confinement, but we still see basic and believable traps at work (for example the pit of syringes.... *shudders*), whereas in later films everything starts looking like over-mechanical uber-traps are the only devices to hand. 6/10.

SAW (2004)

It's Halloween again, and with this time of the year comes another saw film,
this year brings us SAW 3D, which will (hopefully) be the last in the 7 film franchise, but where did it all begin? what kind of movie spawns 6 sequals and goes on to be one of the highest grossing Horror Franchises of all time? let's find out today with SAW.

The 2004 and horror/thriller movie is brought to us by Director James Wan and writer/star Leigh Whannell,based on a short film they made in 2003 (of the same name). Photographer Adam (Whannell) and Surgeon Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes) wake up to find themselves chained to pipes in a dirty, windowless and quiet shower room with a body between them and tapes revealing they have only a limited amount of time to escape, or not only does Dr Gordon die, but his wife and daughter too. so it becomes a race against the clock to find out why they are there, and how they will escape.

In the wrong hands the film could have become very formulaic and mundane and wouldn't have had the lasting power it has today, but the passion and vision from creators Wan and Whanell give us the kind of horror movie never seen before. a smart one. The plot spans out beyond the confines of the enclosed shower room long enough to fill you in on what's going on on the outside as well as in the past (as flashbacks) but doesn't leave it too long before dragging you back again, leading to possibly one of the greatest endings of the 2000's.

Conclusion: Superb performances from all involved (excluding Danny Glover) made this low budget gore/thriller all the more chilling and convincing, while tight Writing, Directing and Editing made it also a beauty to behold (with a badass soundtrack and scoring to boot) 8/10