WILL FANS ENJOY THE STORY, GORE AND TRAPS IN SAW V?

Strangers wake up in an escape room, the police story picks up where it left off, and there’s a bunch of new gory traps. Saw V may not be as strong as the first three Saws, but it’s better than the disappointing and utterly convoluted Saw IV.

Now with Jigsaw and his assistant Amanda Young dead, Agent Strahm becomes suspicious of Mark Hoffman, who’s now praised as a hero, and decides to investigate his past. But meanwhile, another group of unassuming strangers are faced with gruesome tests set up by the famous serial killer.

Director: David Hackl
Cast: Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, Scott Patterson, Betsy Russell, Julie Benz, Carlo Rota, Greg Bryk, Meagan Good, Mark Rolston
Writer: Patrick Melton, Marcus Dunstan
Release Date (Australia): 23 October 2008
Runtime: 92 minutes/1h 32m
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Language: English

R (for sequences of grisly bloody violence and torture, language and brief nudity)

The fifth entry to this unpromising but entertaining franchise surprisingly still holds up strongly. Fans will really enjoy the woken-up-in-a-Jigsaw-escape-room concept, the grisly traps, and the many hints or suggestions related to events from the previous movies. But don’t forget, even though the traps and escape rooms are always new, you’ll still need to have seen the last four instalments to understand and be able to make sense of the ongoing story.

So Saw V is jumping through the law enforcement’s role in the overall story when we’re suddenly introduced to five strangers waking up stuck in the first trap of their free-of-charge escape room. Audiences who love this movie series will be dancing on the inside full of excitement when the introduction to these characters occurs. They don’t know where they are, who each other are, but they all share a connection that brings them to participate in the game. These actors’ performances aren’t top-notch in skill or overly memorable, but their work still creates this brilliant chemistry between each of them. You just want to see these people team up and charge through these obstacles. Also, the actors who play Mark Hoffman and Agent Strahm look very similar and are difficult to tell apart, which makes for a lot of confusing scenes.

But this is the fifth addition to the Saw franchise, so you want to see people getting brutally butchered in traps and getting killed as a result. Don’t worry; Saw V won’t disappoint when it comes to that. Unfortunately though, despite the fun of the traps and escape room, that’s where we approach the film’s first flaw. Most of these traps are very clever, and the pendulum blade will go down as one of the franchise’s best. However, most of the gore and blood effects are really cheesy and distracting, excluding the bloody gory guts of the first kill.

Jumping onto the main criticism, this franchise really needs to close up on its police detectives and law enforcement side of the story, or at least cut back on the importance of it so that it doesn’t take up half of the 90-minute gore movie. Saws I, II and III are actually very entertaining, twisty and competent movies that are worth watching. The fourth movie becomes convoluted and dwells too much on the police aspects, and whilst this sequel hasn’t completely erased general confusion out of the picture, it will make a lot more sense if you’ve seen the predecessors. If you’re into gore and just the Saw movies in general, this film is directed just for the fans and made for you. It’s not a long film and there are very few boring moments, although we’re spoon-fed dumb verbal information in a number of scenes. But some might find this movie directed messily, which is totally fine and understandable.

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