Saw X

SAW X
2023 | Dir. Kevin Greutert | 118 Minutes

"This is not retribution. It's a reawakening."


As his cancer spreads rapidly, Jigsaw travels to Mexico for supposedly highly effective experimental medical treatment. However, he discovers too late that the alleged miracle cure is an elaborate con designed to defraud the terminally ill. With assistance from Amanda, Jigsaw places the fraudsters who deceived him in his latest game.

The first true Saw sequel in over a decade, Jigsaw and Spiral writers Peter Goldfinger and Josh Stolberg return to pen a surprisingly moving previously untold chapter in the story of Jigsaw Killer John Kramer that slots neatly between the events of the original Saw and Saw II. For the first time in the long-running franchise, John Kramer is the main character, and this reasonably self-contained story shows a softer, more sympathetic side of the civil-engineer-turned-death-trap-mastermind. Before the bloody game is underway, the narrative spends the entirety of its first act with a bitter cancer patient who finds precious hope, a Jigsaw who is open to friendship, who fixes bicycles for children, who is ready to discard his cruel work for good, and it all comes together rather nicely to convince the viewer to care about the infamous boogeyman. It's a welcome sight to really see the humanity of John Kramer when he genuinely smiles for purely wholesome reasons. While his methods for teaching bad people warped self-mutilating lessons are beyond extreme, one can't help but understand his justifiable rage when that newfound hope is stripped away. Of course, once the games begin, challenges that happen to feature some of the nastiest traps of the series, the picture becomes an honest-to-goodness Saw movie, and one of the best ones at that. Making this sequel even better, the return of hot-tempered Amanda in the second act allows the story to further explore the deep bond she shares with Jigsaw. Amanda's judgmental attitude and barely-concealed fragility provides ample drama, giving her character more dimension than ever before. As a necessity for audience buy-in, this John Kramer centric sequel appropriately provides a primary antagonist who is far more despicable than Jigsaw - the sociopathic woman orchestrating the scam operation - and the climatic twist gives both her and her scumbag partner their toxic comeuppance in truly one of the most crowd-pleasing Saw endings.

Returning as both director and editor, Saw series veteran Kevin Greutert does his best work for the franchise yet, setting a deliberate pace that gives dramatic scenes plenty of room to breathe and resonate with the audience. For the trap sequences, Greutert aptly turns up the intensity considerably to give them the patented Saw look and feel. The trap set pieces delivered by production designer Anthony Stabley are delightfully disturbingly imaginative, perfectly emulating the grimy aesthetic of early series entries using mostly practical gore effects. Highlights include the finger-breaking eyeball vacuum game, the razor wire amputation bone marrow trial, and the harrowing brain matter challenge that plays like a crazy gamified take on the emergency open skull surgery from Saw III. Series composer Charlie Clouser's latest remix of the Saw theme music, incorporating excellent new elements written for this film, perfectly complements the climatic montage.

Reprising the part of Jigsaw, this time in the lead role, Tobin Bell is magnificent. Playing the part with believable heartfelt vulnerability and terrifyingly cold conviction, Bell more than capably carries the film, firmly establishing the fact that he is the Saw series' most valuable asset. Shawnee Smith is a lot of fun in her return as Amanda, incredibly entertaining interacting with the latest players of Jigsaw's game and heartbreaking in her moments of tender conversation with the ailing Jigsaw. As the chilly Cecilia Pederson, Synnøve Macody Lund exudes the perfect level of calm and collected to embody the evil con artist with a talent for speaking with a persuasive air of authority. As Pederson's accomplice boyfriend Parker Sears, Steven Brand makes for a convincing deceptive scoundrel. Renata Vaca is a incredible as the desperate drug addict Gabriela with a performance that demands sympathy. The cast also features Paulette Hernandez as the imposter medical technician Valentina, Octavio Hinojosa as the drug-dealing veterinarian Mateo pretending to be an anesthesiologist, Joshua Okamoto as the cab driver Diego impersonating a surgeon, Michael Beach as the phony cancer survivor Henry Kessler, Jorge Briseño as the innocent child forced by the villains to participate in Jigsaw's game, and Isan Beomhyun Lee as the custodian Jigsaw imagines placing in the elaborate eyeball trap.

Saw X is an exceptional series revival that successfully functions as both a superb additional chapter and a satisfying stand-alone picture. The film not only delivers some of the most brutal traps of the notorious torture-centric horror franchise, it also tells a much more emotionally resonant story than any previous installment of the series. Longtime Saw enthusiasts are rewarded with a narrative fully focused on the saga's diabolical mastermind featuring his fan-favorite associate playing a prominent role, while potential new viewers are treated to a proper showcase of the Saw series' most appealing aspects: intricately-designed gratuitously violent set pieces operating under a twisted ostensibly moral philosophy and seriously exhilarating twist endings.


MID-CREDITS STINGER
In a certain squalid bathroom, phony cancer survivor Henry Kessler, who initially lured Jigsaw into the scam, awakens in chains with a frightening device strapped to his chest. Jigsaw and accomplice Detective Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) prepare him for a game.


BEST TRAP
The razor wire amputation bone marrow trap is merciless and simply gut-wrenching to watch, Valentina working through her reluctance and pain to pick up the pace severing her leg, and the visceral marrow bits pumping out of the stump just take it over the top. She was so close to winning, too.


FRAGMENTS
- I have to admit I was confused as to whether "X" in the title is intended to be the Roman numeral for "10" or the letter "X" -- as it turns out it is the letter "X" based on the multimedia marketing campaign for the film

- Lionsgate did not host a blood drive to promote Spiral due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the distributor revived the Saw series tradition by hosting a blood drive to promote Saw X
 
- Originally scheduled to be released on October 27, 2023, Lionsgate once again broke with the Saw series' October release tradition, as they did with Spiral, by moving the release to September 29, 2023

- It's incredibly strange to see the trailer for Saw co-creator James Wan's Aquaman sequel play before the tenth installment of the franchise he started that began with the film that launched his career


- Pederson seemingly turning the tables on Jigsaw by placing him in a trap cleverly subverts expectations, but naturally it plays out in a way that Jigsaw anticipated despite little Carlos's unexpected participation -- hopefully that giant bag of cash makes up for what is sure to be lasting psychological trauma for years to come

- I never thought I'd be so happy to see Hoffman again considering the terrible way the character exits the series, but the nostalgia is overwhelming



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Spiral: From the Book of Saw

SPIRAL: FROM THE BOOK OF SAW
2021 | Dir. Darren Lynn Bousman | 93 Minutes

"John Kramer was right, the spiral. A symbol of change, evolution, progress. But why limit that to an individual when you can apply it to a whole system?"


Police officers are picked off one by one by a killer taking inspiration from Jigsaw. Unable to trust his corrupt colleagues, hot-headed Detective Zeke Banks struggles to uncover the identity of the mysterious sadistic mastermind. 

Willed into existence by comedy legend Chris Rock, who successfully courted frequent Saw series director Darren Lynn Bousman to return to the franchise and collaborated with Jigsaw screenwriters Josh Stolberg and Peter Goldfinger on the script, Spiral: From the Book of Saw is the acclaimed impish funnyman's curious reconfiguration of the key elements of the Saw series into a grim procedural detective story. As novel as it is to see a one of the most successful former SNL cast members play it straight as the only good cop on the corrupt police force hunting for a Jigsaw copycat, while inserting his brand of observational humor into his dialogue, Spiral is a bit of a mixed bag. The police investigation driving the plot is stock and, most disappointing for long-time fans, the trap set pieces leave a lot to be desired for the most part. The revelation that the righteous hero's rookie partner is the secret perpetrator harboring a personal vendetta against the police department isn't a bad twist at the very least, though his methods inspired by Jigsaw could use a lot more fine-tuning on a creative level.

For a picture taking place in the same world as the horror movie series known for its death traps, the lethal games at play in Spiral generally lack the "wow" factor inherent in the best Jigsaw tests of yore, they are fewer in number, and they are either simplistic and rather dull conceptually - such as the opening tongue-ripping subway trap - or ridiculously over-designed - such as the finger-tearing electrocuting water tank trap. The final set piece puppeteering the crooked retired police chief on cables into a pose that invites a hail of SWAT team bullets works better in concept for some in-your-face social commentary than in execution. Thankfully, the finale is greatly elevated by composer Charlie Clouser's stripped down version of the Saw theme carried over from the mainline series.

Chris Rock truly puts 110% into his performance as the protagonist Zeke, delivering naturally entertaining banter one minute and leaping into dramatic action hero mode the next without skipping a beat. Max Minghella makes for a convincing secret antagonist, his screen presence is deceptively charming enough that when the twist occurs it's genuinely surprising, and he delivers the mad villain monologue very well. The incomparable Samuel L. Jackson is believably intimidating as an unrepentant thug with a badge though it's difficult to care much about his one-dimensional abrasive character. The cast also features Marisol Nichols as the police captain Garza who meets a face-melting end, Richard Zeppieri as the shady-looking detective who loses fingers but still dies by electrocution, Edie Inksetter as his equally shady-looking partner on the force, K.C. Collins as a "crooked piece of shit" cop according to Chris Rock's Zeke, Patrick McManus as a murderous ex-cop who gets a back full of broken glass, and Daniel Petronijevic as the first casualty of the picture during the cold open.

Spiral is a glossy flawed Saw spin-off. Far from subtle in its criticism of the criminal justice system, particularly rampant police corruption, this crime thriller reworking of the retribution-by-death-trap premise wears its social commentary on its sleeve. Unfortunately, the deadly devices featured in this film are some of the least inventive for a Saw movie, severely lacking in what is undeniably the most appealing aspect of the franchise, and the cop-centric drama is generic at best. Despite the picture's famous funny leading man clearly demonstrating his genuine love for the material, this bloody passion project is admirably ambitious but ultimately comes out to be less than the sum of its intriguing parts.


BEST TRAP
The hot wax trap is the nastiest, most outlandish trap of the film, helping it stand out among a selection of less-than-memorable set pieces. Garza suffocating on burning wax is one of the brutal Saw deaths, and even if she had won this game, it's hard to imagine her having much of a life with a severed spinal cord.


FRAGMENTS
- Jigsaw scribes Josh Stolberg and Peter Goldfinger had begun work on a John Kramer-centric prequel before a chance meeting between distributor Lionsgate vice chairman Michael Burns and unabashed Saw fan Chris Rock prompted them to change course and fast-track this spin-off

- While Spiral is objectively a rather generic title on its own, the From the Book of Saw subtitle is clunky and dumb as hell -- while it's understandable for there to be some brand recognition for marketing purposes, it's baffling they didn't come up with something better 

- Originally scheduled to be released on October 23, 2020, Lionsgate broke with the Saw series' October release tradition by moving the release to May 15, 2020, only to move it again to May 21, 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, before finally settling on its May 14, 2021 release date

- Much of Zeke's humorous dialogue is reminiscent of Quentin Tarantino's penchant for writing pop-culture-savvy characters with a tendency to ramble, his cynical assessment of Forrest Gump shared during his character's introduction is particularly Tarantinoesque

- Zeke stating so definitively that "John Kramer didn’t target cops" is a bit of an eyebrow-raiser considering the numerous cops he placed in his games throughout the Saw series

- The vault door in the police station basement is clear reference to Pulp Fiction as it prominently displays the name of its manufacturer: "Jules and Vincent"

- Listening to the 21 Savage track produced for the film playing over the closing credits, it's incredibly novel to hear Charlie Clouser's Saw theme sampled so heavily in a song


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Jigsaw

JIGSAW
2017 | Dir. The Spierig Brothers | 92 Mintues

"I speak for the dead."


A decade following the death of Jigsaw, mangled corpses with cryptic clues are found across the city as a new game targeting an assortment of wrong-doers begins. A crooked detective directs his suspicions toward a pair of pathologists: one a mild-mannered Iraq War vet, the other a secret admirer of Jigsaw's work.

Directed by cult genre filmmakers The Spierig Brothers with a screenplay by Piranha 3D writers Josh Stolberg and Peter Goldfinger, Jigsaw marks a fresh start for the Saw franchise seven years after the release of the awful Saw 3D. Looking a lot more polished, and with a bit more thought invested into its narrative and pacing, this new installment feels more like a complete cinematic experience compared to some of the series' lesser sequels, and it thematically adheres closer to the warped philosophy of the titular long-dead diabolical mastermind: rehabilitation of the wicked and delivery of brutal justice by forcing offenders to choose between various levels of self-sacrifice, some far more severe than others, or a spectacular over-the-top death. Jigsaw's plot beats will undoubtedly play out with familiarity to devotees of the infamous series, though they do not betray nor rely too heavily on established continuity. Regardless, fans watch these righteous gorefests for the traps and the plot twist, and this one delivers some pretty good ones on both fronts, despite the climatic revelations playing like a greatest hits compilation of previous Saw endings performed by a band with more resources.

From the film's opening foot chase leading to a rooftop where a criminal's hand explodes from gunfire, Jigsaw immediately establishes itself as a more conventional-looking horror movie than past installments, foregoing the exaggerated stylish lighting and excessively grimy set design, but without skimping on gore effects. While the picture undeniably loses some the series' uniquely putrid visual identity, the new gruesome death traps belong in the Saw canon without a doubt. Starting with the picture's instantly-memorable bucket head challenge and ending with its head-dividing laser collar trap, the set pieces are rather inspired and visually striking all around. Veteran series editor Kevin Greutert returns to the franchise with a steadier, more deliberate approach, and his satisfying climatic montage is accompanied by a superb reprisal of composer Charlie Clouser's rocking theme for the series.

It's a low bar to clear but, across the board, Jigsaw features much better performances from its cast than past Saw movies. Playing perhaps the most sympathetic main character ever featured in a Saw film, Matt Passmore is genuinely likeable as Logan, and he sells the twist of the pathologist's secret connection to Jigsaw with the right amount of gravitas. Callum Keith Rennie is believably despicable as Detective Halloran but charismatic enough to make his character fun to hate. The picture also stars features Laura Vandervoort, Paul Braunstein, Mandela Van Peebles, and Brittany Allen as the doomed players of this installment's central game; Hannah Emily Anderson as the attractive Jigsaw fan pathologist Eleanor Bonneville; Clé Bennett as perhaps the only good living cop in the series Detective Hunt; and Josiah Black as the pathetic-criminal-turned-Jigsaw-pawn Edgar Munsen. In what boils down to an extended cameo, Tobin Bell is always engaging as the iconic engineer of death, and he is reliably superb in his handful of scenes.

Jigsaw is a worthy long-gap follow-up to the highly-serialized Saw horror series, more consistent in relative quality to the first three films. The production value on display is impressive, the traps are creatively cruel, the quality of the acting is pleasantly above par for the franchise, and the trademark twist ending does as much as it can to justify the existence of this soft reboot. However, despite its efforts to appeal to a fresh audience, it is still difficult to recommend the picture to newcomers. For fans of the initial run of Saw movies though, this one is certainly worth a look.


BEST TRAP
- The Spiralizer is one of the wildest-looking trap designs of the series, and its payoff does not disappoint. It was absolutely winnable had Mitch just pulled the break instead of celebrating pre-maturely when Anna jammed the wheel to grant him those few precious seconds.


FRAGMENTS
- Reviving series tradition, Lionsgate hosted a blood drive to promote Jigsaw -- of note, the campaign featured several models from the LGBTQ community, in protest of the American Red Cross's refusal to accept blood from sexually active gay men adhering to FDA regulations

- It's a bit odd for a Saw movie to not open with the rusty red gears version of the Lionsgate studio logo that's been in use since Saw II, but the updated Twisted Pictures studio logo with a touch of blood is a nice revision that doesn't totally reinvent it

- I know Callum Keith Rennie best from his role as Leoben Conoy on Ronald D. Moore's brilliant reboot of Battlestar Galactica

- Clé Bennett would go on to play John Walker's strike force partner Lemar Hoskins on the Marvel Studios miniseries The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

- Laura Vandervoort is perhaps best known for her roles as Supergirl Kara Zor-El on The CW's Smallville

- Mandela Van Peebles bears a striking resemblance to his father actor/director Mario Van Peebles

- Eleanor's collection of recreated Jigsaw traps includes the original reverse bear trap from Saw and Saw 3D, the revolver key hole trap from Saw II, the angel trap from Saw III, the water cube trap from Saw V, and this film's Spiralizer

- The actor who plays drunk idiot teenage Ryan in a late-film flashback, coincidentally named Ryan Manning, is the spitting image of Ryan actor Paul Braunstein, excellent casting


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Saw 3D

SAW 3D
2010 | Dir. Kevin Greutert | 90 Minutes

"To be able to sustain such a traumatic experience, and yet find the positive in that grisly act, it's a remarkable feat indeed. Remarkable, if not a little perverse."


Thirsting for vengeance after surviving her attempt to murder him, the rogue detective Hoffman hunts down Jigsaw's ex-wife Jill by any means necessary. Meanwhile, a man profiting from falsely claiming to be a Jigsaw survivor wakes up in a genuine Jigsaw trial.

Saw 3D is a mess. Also known as Saw: The Final Chapter, designed to be the series finale with a screenplay plagued with problems by returning writers Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, the seventh Saw film is full of underdeveloped ideas and head-scratching leaps in logic. Directed by veteran series editor and Saw VI director Kevin Greutert, though none of his ingenuity translates onto the screen, the film starts off well enough by flashing back all the way to the ending of the original Saw to reveal that Dr. Gordon survived, confirming years of fan speculation. However, the picture quickly shows its hand as a lesser sequel when it immediately cuts to a Jigsaw trap targeting a bickering love triangle, bizarrely in public and in broad daylight, operating under a grossly misogynistic premise. This push to prioritize splatter lacking in Jigsaw's signature brand of warped justice is apparent throughout the feature, as Hoffman goes full-slasher and shockingly succeeds in unceremoniously murdering Jill after taking out what seems like the grungy city's entire police department, and phony motivational speaker one-off protagonist Bobby is forced to watch his innocent wife, who was entirely unaware of his deceptive backstory, horrifically roast alive. The pacing is all over the place in the worst way, as the movie shoehorns Jigsaw traps into the narrative without much thought for how they serve the story, such as Jill's gratuitous nightmare sequence and the awesome but out-of-place white-supremacist-destroying body shop set piece. The revelation of Dr. Gordon as a secret Jigsaw apprentice, with at least two other additional acolytes, fulfills fan expectations in an amusing if somewhat obligatory way. However, with minimal build up, the twist comes too little too late, and it doesn't take the edge off some of the more senseless deaths during the picture's final act, killings that fly in the face of the franchise's twisted core tenet of rehabilitation through suffering.

For all of Saw 3D's narrative flaws, the 3D gimmick is rather fun and the overabundance of death traps featured in the film make the most of it. Though perhaps as a side effect of shooting the entire film in RealD 3D, all of the blood in the picture takes on a super distracting pinkish hue. Production designer Tony Ianni pulls out all stops, bringing eleven traps to the screen, a series high, with the Speak No Evil test and the automotive chain reaction trap standing out as real highlights. Composer Charlie Clouser's main theme for the series is as good as ever, and for this entry it really does most of the dramatic heavy lifting during the climax.

Series star Tobin Bell returns all too briefly as Jigsaw, featured in only a handful of audio and video recordings, and appearing in just one absurdly short scene shared with the imposter Jigsaw survivor Bobby. Adhering to the way the role was written, Costas Mandylor gives a bland performance as Hoffman passionlessly stalks and murders his way through this sequel, his character unfortunately devolving into a nigh unstoppable killing machine like so many generic horror movie slashers. On the other side of the bad acting spectrum, Chad Donella is laughably terrible as the internal affairs officer Gibson, making an already poorly-written character worse with exaggerated line delivery and a generally unpleasant screen presence devoid of charisma. Not only is she a victim of multiple Saw traps in this installment, Betsy Russell's Jill is also a victim of having to fill a thankless role with almost zero agency, spending most of the picture as a damsel in distress until her gruesome end. As Bobby, Sean Patrick Flanery isn't bad but ultimately less than memorable, his performance overshadowed by the surrounding insanity and absurdity. Though his return is brief, Cary Elwes is clearly having a hammy slow-clapping good time as Dr. Gordon. The cast also includes Naomi Snieckus, Rebecca Marshall, Dean Armstrong, and Gina Holden as Bobby's entourage; Sebastian Pigott, Jon Cor, and Anne Lee Greene forming the love triangle in the opening hardware store display trap; and Chester Bennington of seminal nu metal rock band Linkin Park, Gabby West, Dru Viergever, and Benjamin Clost as the racist fodder for the gnarly garage scene; and Oluniké Adeliyi as a featured Jigsaw trap survivor.

The alleged final chapter is the very worst Saw sequel yet, a disappointingly poor conclusion that does a great disservice to the admittedly silly but remarkably intricate overarching story of the series. Saw 3D eschews narrative logic for cheap thrills, many of which are unjustifiably mean-spirited, evidently in a rush to cobble together a grand finale. The cheesy fun novelty of 3D doesn't overcome the shabby acting and bad storytelling that's of such low quality as to be truly shameful even by the Saw franchise's already disreputable standards.


BEST TRAP
The Speak No Evil trap is a rather clever appropriately themed punishment for a greedy publicist. It's easily the most nerve-wracking set piece featured in Bobby's trial, and arguably the most imaginative trap featured in this trash fire of a Saw movie.


FRAGMENTS
- The Saw series was originally planned to end with two sequels following Saw VI, but the relatively low box office total for Saw VI forced the production to cram story ideas from the intended eighth installment into this film, and it really shows considering the frantic pacing and rushed feel of this movie

- Series production designer and Saw V director David Hackl was originally slated to direct but dropped out late in pre-production prompting Kevin Greutert to reluctantly return to the director's chair, struggling to integrate his own ideas into the story with sets for traps already built

- Oddly, breaking with series tradition, Saw 3D was the first Saw film without a promotion Red Cross blood drive held by distributor Lionsgate

- Playing the lead role in what is widely considered the worst Saw movie, Young Indiana Jones and Boondock Saints star Sean Patrick Flanery really fell far

- In addition to Dr. Gordon and the survivors of the opening love triangle trap, the support group for Jigsaw survivors also features cameo appearances by catacombs survivor Mallick from Saw V; and from Saw VI, gallows survivor Addy, shotgun carousel survivor Emily, acid trap observer Tara, and flesh scale survivor Simone who is still justifiably angrily protesting the logical fallacy of Jigsaw's philosophy

- Just as Tanedra Howard won her spot in Saw VI, Gabby West was awarded her face-destroying role in this film for winning the second and final season of VH1 acting competition reality show Scream Queens

- Curiously, the film never depicts or elaborates on the trap for the Jigsaw survivor whose testimonial inspired Bobby to fabricate his story

- Though I've always hated that Hoffman murders Jill, seeing the classic reverse bear trap do what it was built for is undeniably gratifying on a visceral level

- I laugh during every single rewatch of this stupid movie when Cary Elwes says "I don't think so" and tosses the hacksaw right into the camera


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Saw VI

SAW VI
2009 | Dir. Kevin Greutert | 90 Minutes

"You think it's the living who will have ultimate judgement over you, because the dead will have no claim over your soul, but you may be mistaken."


Detective Hoffman struggles to cover up his crimes as he sets up one more deadly game with assistance from Jigsaw's ex-wife Jill. Driven by profit and lacking in empathy, a health insurance executive and his staff are the latest Jigsaw test subjects.

Directed by series editor Kevin Greutert, Saw VI is a stand-out sequel that breathes new life into the series after the lackluster Saw V. From its opening self-mutilation contest targeting predatory money lenders, Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan's screenplay takes on a much more topical approach in this installment with incredibly satisfying results. Flashbacks depicting the cancer-stricken Jigsaw pleading for medical coverage with the head of a health insurance company, this installment's ill-fated one-off protagonist, serve to illustrate a tragically relatable situation, particularly for a Saw movie. While the exec deserves at least some sympathy as he stumbles through a series of Jigsaw games forcing him to choose between life and death for various members of his staff, a setup similar in structure to Jeff and Rigg's trials from Saw III and Saw IV, it's undeniably pleasing when he meets his gratuitously disgusting end because of his heartless obsession with the bottom line. Even the continuation of the series' overarching plot is more fulfilling in this picture, featuring the welcome return of Amanda and culminating with Hoffman rather haphazardly murdering the FBI agents who begin to see through his deception. Jill placing the sociopathic detective in an upgraded version of the iconic reverse bear trap according to Jigsaw's video will makes for an absurd but amusing bloody conclusion.

Editor Andrew Coutts matches Greutert's previous work on the series very well, doing particularly fine work on the intense oxygen crusher sequence and the customary closing montage. For Saw VI, production designer Tony Ianni steps up his game delivering some of the best traps yet including the disturbingly simple pound of flesh trap for the opening set piece, the totally bonkers shotgun carousel and, perhaps the most sickening Saw trap ever, the gut-melting acid trap in the final room of William's trial. Series composer Charlie Clouser provides a fantastic significantly expanded take on the climatic Saw twist theme featuring elaborate new additions.

However flimsy the justification at this point, any excuse to bring Tobin Bell back to the Saw series is welcome, as his Jigsaw is always compelling, even when he is preaching about the broken American health insurance industry. Costas Mandylor scowls his way through another installment as Hoffman, though his prickly interactions with Betsy Russell's Jill and Shawnee Smith's Amanda give his character some much needed flavor. Unessential for the plot though an absolute treat for fans, Shawnee Smith's return as Amanda in Hoffman and Jill's flashbacks show just how detrimental her absence from Saw IV and Saw V was to those sequels. As the health insurance boss William, Peter Outerbridge is one of the better Saw protagonists, giving a more subtle performance than most. To tie up loose plot threads, or to get murdered by Hoffman in other words, Mark Rolston and Athena Karkanis return as FBI agents Erickson and Perez. The cast also features Samantha Lemole as investigative journalist Pamela Jenkins; Gerry Mendicino, Janelle Hutchison, Shawn Ahmed, Caroline Cave, Larissa Gomes, Karen Cliche, James Gilbert, Melanie Scrofano, Darius McCrary, and Shawn Mathieson as William's doomed staff; George Newbern as an unfortunate client of William's who was denied health insurance coverage on unreasonable grounds; and Shauna MacDonald and Devon Bostick as the mother and son who decide William's ultimate fate. Billy Otis also briefly reprises the role of the slimy drug addict Cecil for more fun overacting.

Overtly taking the heartless American health insurance industry to task, Saw VI is a refreshingly topical application of the franchise's twisted philosophy to a specific real world issue. A showcase of some of the best traps of the series with a satisfyingly gruesome ending that ties up major plot threads, it's hands down the best Saw sequel since Saw III. 


BEST TRAP
The shotgun carousel is one of the most twisted and iconic traps of the series, standing out even in a sequel that features so many good traps. The melodrama of William's most cherished, most merciless staff members pleading for their lives and the look of anguish on William's face as he makes each life or death decision is simply delectable. A set piece like this one is an especially welcome surprise considering how this is an astounding six installments into the franchise's run.


FRAGMENTS
- Tanedra Howard who plays the desperate Simone to perfection in the opening trap scene won the role on the first season of the short-lived VH1 acting competition reality show Scream Queens -- also, kudos to Simone for calling out how Jigsaw's philosophy is total bullshit

- The chain-smoking janitor and the loner file clerk are among Jigsaw's least deserving victims

- As a child of the 90s, it's surreal to see Darius McCrary, the erstwhile Eddie Winslow from the long-running ABC sitcom Family Matters, appear in a Saw movie

- Melanie Scrofano who plays insurance inspector Gena would go on to star in the Western horror series Wynonna Earp in the titular lead role -- she also has a recurring role on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds as Starfleet Captain Marie Batel

- The retconned revelation of Amanda's involvement in the incident that caused Jill's miscarriage, and Hoffman blackmailing Amanda with this information, feels very hat-on-top-of-a-hat, but for better or worse it adds extra dimension to her decision to shoot Lynn at the end of Saw III

- Hoffman's desperate solution to the reverse bear trap shows as about as much gritty determination as Detective Matthews's solution to the escape the bathroom in the opening scene of Saw III

- The unrated cut of Saw VI features a post credits stinger that takes place during Saw III in which Amanda tells Jeff's daughter not to trust the one who saves her


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