Review of Saw V (2008) by Gareth J — 04 Feb 2010

And so, another year has passed and so has another SAW. Unlike the SAWs of Halloween's passed, this one has the distinction of being built using a completely new slate. A new director (David Hackl) has come aboard, and new writers (Patrick Melton & Marcus Dunstan of the Feast films) have come aboard.

With Jigsaw now dead, his voice and traps live on through his apprentice, Detective Hoffman (Costas Mandylor, returning from the previous entry). The film even tries a new, groundbreaking element: "Toned Down".

That's right, kids. The excessive amounts of gore and blood-drenched deaths have been calmed down quite a bit in this film (save for maybe 2) and the name of the game on this film is shockingly more story oriented.

Don't get too sad though, as there is still a small group of trapped people (including Meagan Good of Love Guru and Julie Benz of Rambo) getting torn up in various traps. Jigsaw himself, Tobin Bell, returns in various flashbacks and his wife (played by Betsy Russell) shows up briefly for scenes that I can only assume will be better established in Part 6 (which turned out to be true).

There isn't much of a twist to this one that people have come to suspect, but the ending packs a nice, but small punch. Overall, this turned out to be not as bad as I thought but it's overall toned-down attitude and blander than usual storyline make this the weakest in the bunch.

Can't we try and introduce more new and original films to people instead of safe-bet money makers like the SAW films? Is Hollywood really that greedy and lazy? A: Yes.