Review of Saw VI (2009) by Chris H — 29 Nov 2012

SAW VI as the name implies is the sixth in this once inventive horror franchise. With Jigsaw now dead, Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) takes over the Jigsaw role to fulfill the final wishes left in the will of the original Jigsaw (Tobin Bell).

The whole point of the Jigsaw killings was that he took people that were living in a way that caused pain to other people and put them in a situation where if they were willing to sacrifice something (usually a piece of their anatomy) they would be able to survive. They would either sacrifice and win their game and survive with a newfound appreciation of life or fail miserably suffer, and die a painful death due to one of Jigsaw Puzzles. Apparently now these rules don?t apply and Jigsaw has put William (Perter Outerbridge) the man who decided whether to cover his health insurance claim for his cancer treatment into the final game. William must play four games each unlocking a small explosive locked onto his arms and legs. For each game he completes he gets a key until he is finally free. What is different about Williams?s game is that his games typically involve picking which of his coworkers gets to live or die. Apparently Jigsaw decided not to let them play for their own life they are just there to die, which goes completely against the whole point of what he was doing. While this is going on the feds are trying to figure out who is carrying out Jigsaws final wishes, not realizing it is Hoffman who is right under their nose.

Make no mistake this installment of SAW is awful and I am(was) a fan of the franchise, what was once a movie you could count on for some ingenuity in the killing department and a twist ending has become boring and repetitive not even following its own rules it has set up. The acting is terrible and Costas Mandylor has proven to be so completely inept and awful that he should be ashamed of himself for taking a paycheck to destroy this franchise. The best part about his role is that when he is on the screen you know it?s a good time for a bathroom break.

Tobin Bell and Shawnee Smith return in their roles as Jigsaw and Amanda, since they are both dead they are now just interactive visions that just add another layer of stupidity and confusion to the film.

SAW IV is so bad you feel like you are in one of Jigsaws games, if you can suffer through this abomination you will have a newfound appreciate for life.