The Saw franchise soldiers on, even though Jigsaw has shuffled off his mortal coil. As usual they throw in a last minute twist and some gore, but it seems to not be as inventive as what has some before. I pity the fool that steps into this film without having seen the other ones though.
The assumption is that you’ve watched all of the other Saw films up to this point, so if you’ve not you may not want to read the plot description as it will refer back to the other films. God help you if this is the first Saw film you’ve watched though as they build upon one another and you’ll be a little lamb lost plotwise.
Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) is dead, though death never kept a good villain down (see The Testament of Dr. Mabuse). The mantle of his games was taken over by Lieutenant Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) as we discovered in Saw IV. It seems that Hoffman killed the murderer of his sister and arranged it to make it look like Jigsaw did it. Well, Jigsaw confronted him and eventually took him under his devilish wing.
Saw V takes up directly after the events of the previous film and FBI agent Peter Strahm (Scott Patterson) finds himself in one of the nasty Jigsaw traps. All seems lost until he performs an emergency tracheotomy on himself and actually survives the deathtrap.
Luckily, he wasn’t able to tell who put him there so Hoffman’s identity is safe. However, Strahm continues his investigation of who has taken over for the deceased Jigsaw with even more fervor. Strahm’s boss agent Dan Erickson (Mark Rolston) orders him off the case but he continues his investigation.
Meanwhile, five strangers, Ashley (Laura Gordon), Charles (Carlo Rota), Brit (Julie Benz), Mallick (Greg Byrk), and Luba (Meagan Good), also awaken in one of the demonic traps and have to go against their natures to get through four torture rooms to earn their freedom.
Jigsaw/John Kramer’s widow Jill (Betsy Russell) also receives a mysterious box from the mad mastermind. Strahm’s investigation is leading towards Hoffman, but he has other plans for the erstwhile detective.
Saw V arrives on DVD in this unrated edition and adds 4 more minutes of bloody footage (so I assume it’s gore not having seen the rated cut). Each film does build on the other so I had to do some recall as to what happened in the previous installment, but it caught up. They also stage flashbacks during the current events so you might also get a bit of mental whiplash trying to figure out what’s happening.
Tobin Bell is suitably cunning as the master killer and game player and Costas Mandylor seems a bit more brutish than thoughtful as his replacement. I’m always interested to see how this storyline plays out since the films usually end with many unanswered questions and this one is no exception, especially the contents of the mysterious box that Jigsaw’s widow receives.
That being said, I also felt that this entry just felt like more of the same and didn’t feel it had the surprises that the other entries did. I hope that whatever Jigsaw is planning lives up to expectations and doesn’t turn out to be a lame screenwriting device (no twin brothers please).
There are some creative scenes, I especially liked the way they shot the cube trap, but this entry just didn’t seem as creative as the others. I still think we’ll need to watch all of the films to see how they connect when the franchise is done (didn’t the creators say that they planned six or seven films?).
Saw V is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include two commentaries. The first is from director David Hackl and first assistant director Steve Webb. The second is from producers Owen Koules and Mark Burg and executive producers Peter Block and Jason Constantine.
There are also short documentaries about how they came up with the various traps in the film, The Pendulum Trap (5 minutes), The Cube Trap (5 minutes), The Coffin Trap (5 minutes), and the Fatal Five (12 minutes). There’s also the 5 minute “Slicing the Cube” that shows how they developed that particular trap visually. Finally there’s the 48 second trailer.
Saw V is more of the same. Luckily, Tobin Bell is still around even though his character is dead (you just can’t keep a good serial killer down – especially when his box office is good).
I can’t say I have the same interest in his replacement. I look forward to seeing where the plot of the franchise is going, it’s just this entry really didn’t have the fun surprises as the previous entries.
Saw V (Unrated Collector's Edition) is now available at Amazon . It is available for pre-order at AmazonUK for a March 9th release. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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