Seen on: October 24, 2008

The players: Director: David Hackl, Writers: Patrick Melton, Patrick Melton, Cast: Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, Scott Patterson, Julie Benz and Meagan Good

Facts of interest: This is the first "Saw" film directed by David Hackl. The previous ones were directed by James Wan and Darren Lynn Bousman.

The plot: Welcome to the fifth installment in the popular horror franchise. Jigsaw is dead, obviously, but he found a new assitant who continues his gruesome work.

Our thoughts: I’m not quite sure what the tagline for David Hackl’s “Saw V” really means: “You won’t believe how it ends.” How what ends? Maybe I’m missing something crucial here, but I couldn’t find anything ending in this fifth installment of the ultra-popular horror franchise. No, instead of ending, the whole thing starts all over again. Sadly enough, the fun is long gone…

As usual, this new “Saw” flick opens where the last one ended. If you can’t really remember what all happened in the previous installment, make sure to watch it before heading out to theaters if you don’t want the story to confuse you. Anyway, as we all know by now, Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) is totally dead, although that doesn’t mean we actually got rid of them. On the contrary, he's all over this movie.

How? Well, just like in “Saw IV,” the plot takes an awful lot of time revisiting the past films, showing us how Jigsaw set up some of his gruesome traps and what kind of assistance he had in doing so. In this movie, we learn Jigsaw found someone to carry on his work, and most of the main story line tells us how the two met and how they got started on all those terrifying games we’ve been watching for the past four years. 

Unfortunately, this structure is also the main problem of “Saw V.” The film just doesn’t advance, and most of what we get to experience here is pointless and quite simply too boring. I remember I screamed for some change and innovation after the third film, and although the fourth was certainly not the best, I welcomed the idea of going back in time and digging deeper into Jigsaw’s character. But this? This is seriously overdoing it.

Basically, we got three things going on here. First, we have several flashbacks to most of the previous films. Second, we follow Agent Strahm (Scott Patterson), who tries to uncover the identity of Jigsaw’s latest apprentice. Finally, we follow a group of people trying to make it out alive of one of these deadly games. I know this all sounds like a lot of variety at first, but the end result looks a little different.

Here’s why: Strahm’s investigation is far too weak and easy because we know who the real bad guy is from the start. The flashbacks certainly give us some explanation about how Jigsaw recruited his assistant, but most of these scenes tend to drag and fail to captivate. As for the game with the usual crazy traps and gruesome deaths, it definitely lacks the suspense of its predecessors. There’s enough gore to please the fans, but hardly any of these scenes are intense.

This time around, David Hackl is directing, but his style and vision are less efficient than James Wan’s and Darren Lynn Bousman’s. As far as the cast is concerned, don’t expect any surprises. The characters are obviously pretty shallow, and the actors never really get a chance to show us what they got. All right, let’s quickly wrap this up for good. 

Freaky quote: “Today, five people will become one, with the goal of surviving." – Tobin Bell

The final word: “Saw V” is not necessarily dead boring, but the film shows more weaknesses than its predecessor and fails to offer viewers anything new. Of course, the ending is set up to make you want to return to the theater next year for the sixth film. That is, if you still believe this franchise will ever reboot with some style. “Saw V,” however, is a big step back.

Article by Franck Tabouring