Jigsaw

There’s really not much left to say about these films that hasn’t been said before, but I guess it’s still worth a shot.

Released seven years after the apparent “Final Chapter” of the series, Jigsaw is the continuation/reboot of the Saw franchise for a new generation. The set-up is simple: ten years after the in-continuity death of John Kramer (Tobin Bell) aka the original (and best) Jigsaw, similar murders begin to terrorize the populace, all eerily familiar to the death traps Kramer once used and all marked with his signature puzzle piece calling card. With a new group of unfortunates trapped in a seemingly never ending game of gore and blood sacrifice, and yet another handful of detectives and secondary characters hot on the case, will anything be enough to solve these murders and find out once and for all who the new (or old) Jigsaw killer is? Or is the game destined to last forever as the body count piles up and the clues run out?

Let’s be honest here, storytelling was never one of this franchise’s strong suits, so if you’re going for something other than the traps and twist ending (that, as usual, makes no sense), then move along. But if you’re here because you’re a fan and know what you’re getting into, then read on because like it or not, with eight movies in total, countless death traps, convoluted story twists, and buckets of blood later, this franchise is still alive and kicking. Say what you will about most of the sequels, but there’s at least three or four that aren’t really the worst things in the world with the other few, the last sequel especially, pretty much being just that. With Jigsaw, a lot of the worst aspects of the franchise as well as some of the best are mixed together to form an uneven, if not slightly inspired new take on the franchise.

On one side we have a relatively interesting story that follows the authorities attempts at finding this new Jigsaw killer, a story that gave me shades of the film Seven, you know, without all of the good stuff, but shades of it nonetheless. It’s moody and shot (relatively) well, and has all the elements of what could have turned out to be a halfway decent detective story had the script not gotten in its own way. At points I was genuinely intrigued by the way the film played out, for once the story sucked me into this world more than the reused and uninspired death traps, only for it all to devolve into an expected mess of convolution and insanity that goes nowhere quick. I wonder if this franchise might benefit from straying away from its horror roots and the incessant wall-to-wall screaming and dismemberment that the series is known for, and jump head first into the more thriller/drama angle that the series displays from time to time, putting the story first and allowing the traps and mutilation to really become something effective and disturbing rather than eye-rolling and mildly interesting. Again, a film more in line with something like Seven rather than the genre schlock it has become.

But alas, it’s not meant to be, and for all the slight good that this film tries to drum up, there’s yet another cliché or overused franchise crutch that knocks the final product down a few pegs, never to rise up any higher than the fleeting glimpse of mediocrity that the script exhibits from time to time. Though I will admit that I found a handful of the new traps new and exciting, the first half hour of the movie does them no favors, giving us some of the most over the top and slightly dumb traps this franchise has ever seen. From there, with more of a focus on tracking down the Jigsaw killer than cutting to the carnage at the center of the story, the film holds together just barely enough to become watchable and even gets your hopes up that the final act might blow the doors off of this one, solidifying Jigsaw as the perfect launch pad for the next leg in this aging franchise, but unfortunately – and unsurprisingly – that doesn’t happen. With both a twist that I was relatively okay with before the script beat it into the ground the way Saw films are usually wont to do, and some acting that’s mostly terrible and cringe-worthy and on par with the rest of the franchise, the few remaining saving graces of this film were simply not enough to make this sequel stand out in any meaningful way.

While not the worst sequel of the bunch, Jigsaw squanders its chance at becoming something better than what has come before by settling for more of the same. At least half of the traps are fresh and exciting with the other half doing nothing to help the series move past it’s “torture porn” roots, and when it comes to the final twist and it’s implications regarding the rest of the series, that same problem doesn’t go away. That being said, I didn’t hate this film, I just wish the filmmakers took this franchise seriously again rather than making another sequel just because they need some quick cash on the side.

Also, I forgot how much screaming there is in these movies…jeez.