You’ve seen it all before: the traps, the poor acting, the flashbacks to previous movies in the franchise. Yes, if it’s Halloween it must be time for another Saw, only this time you won’t believe the ending. At least that is what Saw V‘s (Lionsgate) tag line promises.
The sad truth is, however, you will probably see the twist coming before the movie’s halfway over. It almost makes you wish you were watching a M. Night Shyamalan film.
Saw V is the fifth entry into the quickly fading Saw franchise, which peaked in popularity in 2005 with the series’ inventively titled second incarnation, Saw II. The franchise has been one of diminishing returns. While the first film was independent in spirit, original and well worth one’s time, each successive entry has been less and less satisfying. Saw V can be considered the bottom of the barrel. Watching the film is like getting a bag full of rotten apples and candy corn on Halloween.
The film’s premise, like in all of the Saw films, is that people are put into situations involving gruesome traps that require some sort of sacrifice to set them free, and the traps often loosely relate to some terrible thing the person has done before. If they can escape they are rehabilitated. If not, they become a bloody, torn up corpse.
Originally the perpetrator was the serial killer known as Jigsaw (Tobin Bell); however, he died in Saw III. Now his work has been passed on to Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor), a forensics detective who has been part of the Saw franchise since Saw III. No one suspects Hoffman of anything, except Agent Strahm (Scott Patterson, “Gilmore Girls”), the only other survivor from Jigsaw’s warehouse in a series of events that started in Saw III (it really is a bit much to describe).
Meanwhile a group of five corrupt people, who are all somehow connected, are put in another random warehouse with clues to how they can escape.
Of course, plenty of them will die in Jigsaw’s latest traps, but the scenario is strikingly similar to the main story line in Saw II.
In the end, the story lines all come together, but not without rehashing the last four films and getting Tobin Bell some flashback screen time.
The Saw franchise has become a mockery of what it once was, as all great horror franchises eventually do.
Like the Elm Street series that relied on Robert Englund as the legendary Freddy Krueger to keep people interested, Saw is still relying on Tobin Bell as Jigsaw to try and keep people coming back.
How long can you give work to a character that died in the third film?
The performances in Saw V all hover around terrible and make one yearn for the days when Danny Glover and Cary Elwes were headlining.
Even the traps and torture devices (one of the only redeeming qualities of Saw III and IV) are relatively uninspired.
It seems like it is finally time for this Saw to be thrown back in the tool shed. Or not. Saw VI is coming next year.
