SAW V: DVD

SYNOPSIS:
Agent Peter Strahm (Scott Patterson) barely survives a multiple kill in trademark Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) style and starts to suspect an insider has taken up The Jigsaw's nasty games. Forensics expert/detective Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) realizes he's under suspicion and tries to make sure his game isn't up.

Review by Andrew L. Urban:
It's questionable who suffers more in this torture porn sequel - the victims or the audience. But glib lines aside, the trouble with Saw V (or any other sadistic horror movie franchise for that matter) is that there is no point in continuing the franchise unless the filmmakers can up the ante in the gruesome/anguish/torture stakes. In the case of The Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) it's also incumbent on the filmmakers to add gravitas to his self-proclaimed moral mission - and perhaps expand his empire of helpers.

But the escalation of torture methods is not enough (as it were) to make up for a clear story. The last thing we need in Saw V is a convulsed storyline that tries hard to be a thriller plot - when all the audiences for this franchise want is the industrial strength gizmo-gadget-driven systems The Jigsaw invents to terrify and torture his prey.

Jigsaw/John is supposed to have died, but his legacy lives on ... except the film is a mish mash of flashbacks that are more confusing than explanatory, and The Jigsaw seems very much alive. This seems like a cynical exercise in having our dead Jigsaw cake and then eating it alive ... Not a tasty treat.

DVD special features include filmmaker's commentary, plus a selection of featurettes: The Pendulum Trap, The Cube Trap, The Coffin Trap, The Fatal Five Slicing the Cube: Editing the Cube Trap.

Published March 12, 2009