Review of Saw V (2008) by Edward C — 07 Oct 2010

You wont belive how it ends.

Plot/SummaryDetective Hoffman and Agent Strahm clash as they each investigate the apparent continuation of the Jigsaw murders.

My Review.

Thanks to saw v I understand the puzzlePlease be advised that this review contains some SPOILERS. Saw V follows through on revelations made at the end of the last installment, where audiences discovered that Detective Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) had been serving as Jigsaw's (Tobin Bell) secret helper. In fact, this latest installment establishes that Hoffman has now become Jigsaw's successor as well.

Saw V is essentially a cat and mouse story between Hoffman and FBI Agent Strahm (Scott Patterson), who is recovering when he begins to piece together that Jigsaw had help from someone in law enforcement. Strahm's investigation leads him to Hoffman, who attempts to throw the law off his trail as he eliminates all the loose ends. Meanwhile, Jigsaw's ex-wife, Jill (Betsy Russell), receives a mysterious package ...

Elsewhere, a group of strangers (Julie Benz, Meagan Good, Carlo Rota, Greg Bryk and Laura Gordon) wake up inside a dank room (is there ever any other kind in the Saw films?) with booby-trapped collars around their necks. What thing from their past could they all share that would have landed them in such a terrifying predicament? In order to find that out, they will have to survive a series of tests.

Click the photo above to watch our Saw V video review.

Saw V is less of a grueling mindjob than IV, thanks to a relatively straightforward story that ties up the loose ends of the previous four entries even as it sets the course for future installments that won't have to hark back to preceding films. One can't help but wonder, though, how long the filmmakers can keep the series going now that Jigsaw is dead. It remains to be seen how effective a successor Hoffman could be seeing how he lacks Jigsaw's philosophical bent (but not his knack for mechanical engineering -- not bad for a city cop), which is what helped make Saw and that character unique.

Yes, fans, Jigsaw is indeed back for Saw V but I won't reveal how that's done. Suffice to say that he has one of the film's best scenes, an almost eight-minute long dialog exchange with Mandylor's Hoffman that's virtually unheard of for a horror film. The rest of the cast are serviceable, with a few creaky acting moments from each of them at different points.

David Hackl, the production designer on the previous Saw movies, makes a solid feature directing debut here, working with a leaner, less cluttered story than in past installments. The traps, however, are the real reason why people go to see these films and, in that regard, Saw V delivers the goods. Each trap set-piece here is better than most of those seen in the last two sequels, resulting in some grisly but memorable death scenes. Saw V doesn't reinvigorate the franchise, but it does suggest that there's still some blood left to be drained from the body.