Saw VI Review

Posted by Shawn S. Lealos on 10.23.2009

Many questions are finally answered in the Saw franchise. Were the answers worth the wait?

Directed by Kevin Greutert
Written by Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton

Cast
Tobin Bell ... Jigsaw/John
Costas Mandylor ... Hoffman
Mark Rolston ... Erickson
Betsy Russell ... Jill
Shawnee Smith ... Amanda
Peter Outerbridge ... William
Samantha Lemole ... Pamela Jenkins




Saw is a movie franchise that rewards its constant viewers. A person coming into the series at part four will probably leave frustrated with a great dislike of the movie. There are also a large number of people who mistakenly refer to the Saw series as “torture porn”, a title which does not fit. There is a lot of torture involved, but at its heart Saw is a giant morality tale. The best parts of the series are when people are forced to learn lessons about themselves, while the worst parts are moments where the traps are used as torture devices. Saw VI tries to wrap up the tale from the previous five efforts and, in that area, it works rather well.

The series is a serial effort, much like the old Saturday morning adventure series. Each movie ends with a cliffhanger, making audiences come back for more. Each movie also ties together loose ends from previous efforts and, for the people who skip installments, this can be confusing, coloring their opinion of the films. It is impossible to see the writing skill involved when you cannot see the bigger picture. Here is a Cliff Notes version of the movie for the uninitiated.

Jigsaw was John Kramer, a terminally ill cancer patient who devised the games to test the “will to live” of people who he finds guilty of wasting their lives. The game began when his wife, Jill Tuck, is caught in the middle of a robbery while running a rehabilitation clinic and has a miscarriage. The first victim of the game is the drug dealer who caused the death of John and Jill’s child. Since then John, an architect by trade, has built elaborate traps with the sole purpose of trying to rehabilitate people by allowing them to witness death face to face. Along the way, John has mentored two associates, a former druggie named Amanda and a police officer named Hoffman. After John and Amanda are killed, Hoffman took over the role of Jigsaw and the killing continued. However, Hoffman is not as interested in rehabilitating people and seems more willing to torture and punish. This immediately makes Jigsaw less interesting because the entire purpose of the franchise is to give the victims the choice to live, rehabilitated, or give up and die.

The opening of the sixth installment showcases the wrong way to make a Saw movie. There are two people in connecting rooms and one will live while the other will die. The only way to escape alive is to cut off enough flesh to dump on a scale, outweighing the other. These people’s crimes are the dumbest yet for a Saw movie. They work for a loan agency that rips off their customers and “destroys lives.” These are not the crimes that make the Jigsaw killer interesting. The fact that the survivor does not learn anything from the experience makes it a failure of the original plan.

Once the main movie starts, things get more interesting. Co-writer Patrick Melton promised there would be resolution but he is only partially correct. As always, there are many connect the dots flashbacks showing how the setups in other movies occurred. We see John, Amanda and Hoffman all working together as one unit for the first time on the third movie’s traps. We learn why Amanda killed the nurse in the third movie, what is in the box that John left for his wife in the fourth movie, and how Hoffman was brought aboard to begin with. There is also the return of a character believed dead and John’s final “game” is finally put in motion.

Aside from tying up loose ends and finalizing John’s plans, there has to be a big game because this is a Saw movie. The series goes back to the formula from the third, and best, movie in the series. Instead of the group dynamic, such as what we saw in the second and fifth movie, we get one man pushed to the limit. In the second movie it was a man wronged in life. Here, we are given a man who has hurt many, many people over his life. The man playing the latest game is William, an insurance adjuster. While I feel the loan sharks in the opening are stupid, the insurance adjuster fits perfectly in the story because John’s final victims are people who hurt him in his life. William turned down John’s request for help finding a cure, so now William must learn his lessons on how to become a better person.

As with all Saw movies there is a twist at the end that I will not spoil here but, needless to say, revenge is finally served on those who deserve it.

The main selling point of Saw to many people are the traps. The traps here are a letdown, with only a couple of eye popping ones. There is more of a circus atmosphere to this movie, making the game more disorienting. Among the traps are a merry go round, with a shotgun pointed at it, a number of machines to allow the filmmakers to show excessive gore thanks to the cuts, and a really lame trap simply used to crush a man. The best device is saved for the end and the final kill is the best of the movie. Gore hounds should love that final kill, as the gore is spectacular.

I am not as interested in the kill machines, so I do not count off as many points for their unoriginality as other reviewers might. I am more intrigued with the mythology of the franchise. Jigsaw is an adept name for the killer. In the film it refers to the victims missing the piece of the human puzzle that allows them to survive. I see another, more important meaning to the name. This entire movie franchise is a giant puzzle. Each character, each kill, each game is all a piece of a larger puzzle. This episode of the series answers some very important questions. It also might conclude the story of John Kramer, which is a shame, since there are still three movies to go. The only direction I see the series going from here is revenge mode, but that is not fun at all. The movie ties up all the loose ends perfectly but leaves the final shot to show there is more to come. I just don’t know if that will prove as interesting as what came before.

The 411: Saw VI provides only one or two inspired kills. Fans that only go to these movies for the gore factor will leave disappointed. However, for fans that have followed this series from the first installment, the sixth movie is well worth your time. Throughout the previous five movies, clues have been left at our feet. In this sixth installment, those clues all pay off. I have heard complaints that there are too many loose ends in the movies, but that is the entire magic of the writing in this series. The movie is a giant Jigsaw puzzle and, as the movies progress, the pieces are put into place until there is one giant cohesive story. The sixth movie, for now, seems to complete the entire story of John Kramer, the original Jigsaw. Villains are dealt with and revelations are made. There is also a great game involved, as the movie reverts to allowing one man to atone for his mistakes one trap at a time. Then there is the twist we all expect. And then there is another, that I saw coming, but still paid off well. Just don’t come for the gore as only the final kill is worth your time.

Final Score:  6.5   [ Average ]