SAW re- VI sited

Rating: 8.2/10

Genre: Slasher

Overall value for money and time: 8.5/10

Checking my previous post in Dec 2007, "Saw Quadrilogy", I realised I didn't review Saw V. Thinking back, I knew what the reason was, it was the least commendable of all its predecessors, causing me to lose interest in future sequels. Upon it's addition, it would only have further decreased its overall ratings. Furthermore, the overall rating was hugely contributed by Saw and Saw II.

I wasn't looking forward to the Saw sequels for I had the idea that the directors were just in it for the money... the storyline was going down, and the making of yet another sequel seemed doomed for disappointment.

Knowing how all the Saw sequels played around with the "timeframe" and predates previous installments, I relished the opportunity to catch a Saw movie marathon by New Paper with my girlfriend and boy I must say, Saw VI rekindles a new found fire.

Just a couple of trivia before I start reviewing this movie which I discovered during the 12 hardcore and gruelling hours we had to sit through during the "godfather" of slasher movies. The director was different for the 1st installment, same for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th, was a different one for 5 as well as 6. The writers were the same for the 1, 2 and 3 but were different for 4, 5 and 6. This trivial point is important in understanding why the plot of Saw experienced its ups and downs...

Saw had an entirely different "feel" compared to the rest, it felt more of an independent film which might or might not promise a sequel. Saw V broke the trend of "awesome" twists with its predictable and anticlimaxal ending. Saw VI had a different approach from the rest in that it no longer dealt with FBI agents, but moved on to a whole new refreshing occupation - insurance agents. Saw II, III, VI all dealt with FBI agents which went a little downhill with the lingering storylines.

Starting from Saw II onwards, the director dropped little hints during the different sequels to pre-emp the audience for followups in the future sequels. Saw II to V basically used the same agents throughout the sequels and Saw V was the one which added new characters to the Saw saga. Saw IV had a flash of the torture coffin used to imprison the protagonist in Saw V and the contents of the box left by Jigsaw for his wife in Saw V was finally revealed in Saw VI, though it wasn't an epic find.

In summary, Saw 1 had it all, the story, the suspense, the acceptable gore, the twist, the ingenuity. Saw 2 kept it's twist, gore and incorporated additional characters. Saw 3 tied loose ends, had too much twists in the end which made it too confusing, hence dropping in ingenuity, but increasing its gore meter. Saw 4 added a whole new level of confusion, at the same time increasing in gore and killing off redundant characters. Saw 5 dropped in almost all aspects: story, suspense, twist, ingenuity but uped once again in gore.

Last but not least, Saw 6 brought honor back to the Saw saga. It had a good amount of twist at the end, killed off redundant characters, had story, had suspense and increased it's gore meter by 2 fold. Goriest Saw sequel up to date has got to be Saw VI. Yet, it had additional elements in it, a refreshing group of victims, refreshing torture challenges which played with moral dilemma and most importantly, the "cool" factor.

Initially, I thought the successors of Jigsaw would never surpass him, in the absence of Jigsaw, the Saw sequels wouldn't be that appealing to the audiences. But Saw VI brought the Saw saga to a whole new level... Jigsaw will soon be the past... the present is now... Hoffman...

PS: I have included the poster for Saw V for completion sake. A couple more interesting trivias, there is a original Saw short movie on youtube.com - Saw 0.5 and one of the writers Leigh Whannell also co-stars as Adam in Saw and Saw III.