"Saw V" Film Review

92 minutes of my young life, dirtied and wasted.

Saw V is horror film directed by David Hackl in 2008. This is the fifth movie in the Saw franchise. It stars Julie Benz, Meagan Good, Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, Scott Patterson, and Betsy Russell.

My friends and I watched Saw V on a whim, because we wanted to be entertained. Well, wrong move. Most of my friends slept through the parts where the two detectives were playing their boring little game of cat and mouse. Saw V didn’t seem like a movie at all, it was barely even an attempt at horror or thrill, and could have just as easily been a 92 minute deleted scene. Not even Tobin Bell’s chilling performance as the psychopathic life coach, Jonathan Kramer (aka The Jigsaw Killer), could save this ridiculous half-assed movie. Sure, the puzzles were as disgusting and unthinkable as they ever were and the victims were as annoying and stupid as we hoped they wouldn’t be, but the whole scenario is pointless and totally unrelated to anything that was happening in the “main story.” And the main story, is a complete waste of time. The audience already knew (since the previous film actually) who the new Jigsaw killer was, so there was no suspense at all. The attempt in making the apprentice killer appear like a tortured hero out for revenge against the true evils of the world, is quite simply, lame. Not only that, the casting was a poor choice as well, or maybe it was the stylist’s fault, because my friends had a little trouble discerning which detective was which since they looked a lot alike. The dark lighting and environment didn’t help at all.

I don’t know what I was thinking when I expected a Saw movie to satisfy my craving for some entertainment. To be fair though, I admit that I was a little entertained by Saw V, after all, I couldn't help but quietly chuckle every so often by its pure awfulness. I mean sure, the first Saw film was unlike any slasher/horror flick I’ve ever seen, and it was genius-like in its numerous twists. However, the succeeding films only serve to exploit the disturbing human curiosity for morbidity and gore. Saw V is proof that the franchise is getting worse and that nobody really cares as long as they get their fix of torture porn.

Wrong move, man. So wrong.

Jigsaw: “Vengeance can change a person. It can make them realize what they’re capable of.”