Directors: Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig.
I remember the first Saw movie being somewhat of a success, probably more so in the wake of its general release back in 2004, earning itself a cult following and thus spawning... how many sequels? This one being number seven? Admittedly, I haven’t seen them all so comparatively writing, I’m not going to be able to comment much of what’s gone on before and I do believe knowing what has happened, does helps iron out the story here. Though this doesn’t take anything away from the enjoyment of this film. I mean, it’s the ingenuity of the killings that intrigues us right?
What I do know, is that Jigsaw, the sadistic, psychopathic, serial killer has been on the rampage for a number of years murdering supposedly victims, guilty people, sharing the same killing ethics as John Doe from Se7en. Targets are captured, encaged or imprisoned and are given the ultimate ultimatum of life or death; and not necessarily your own, which explores the human’s survival psyche and certainly poses the question to the audience of “what would you do?”
It is as expected, comes with all the creative gory traps and it has to be, otherwise it wouldn’t be a Saw movie. Directing brothers, Michael and Peter Spierig do a fine job of continuing the Saw legacy in perfect fashion, but does it match up to what we have seen before, appeasing fans of the franchise? The Spierig Brothers are best known for their previous films Predestination and Daybreakers, which they both wrote and directed making this the first film they’ve made not written by themselves.
What doesn’t help the film, though this appears to be a running tradition with the saga; is the lack of the big names. Possibly not wanting to tarnish the idea as a whole with big Hollywood names. The majority of people know of the Saw franchise and whether they have seen one or not, they probably know the gist of the basic plot, which is enough for the saga to reap it’s success.
Equally, the performances are mediocre and the script is very much cliched, possibly where the story attempts to be smarter than what it actually is. Maybe the Brothers should have contributed here taking some of the writing responsibilities from Piranha 3D and Sorority Row writers, Josh Stolberg and Pete Goldfinger.
And no matter how bold a story or franchise can be, quite like Saw, the lack of big names, cliched script and weak characters, does make this feel more like a TV Movie spinoff as oppose to a full feature film. But at it’s core, it keeps the true essence of the legacy being a nasty, creative slasher thriller; I can’t call it a horror because there’s more of a mystery and hardly any jump scares. Sadly though, it’s underwhelming and somewhat disappointing and not sure if fans will take to it.
Running Time: 7
The Cast: 5
Performance: 5
Direction: 6
Story: 4
Script: 4
Creativity: 7
Soundtrack: 5
Job Description: 4
The Extra Bonus Point: 0
43% 4/10
