Jigsaw Review

Jigsaw is the 8th installment in the SAW horror franchise and follows a new mystery centered around murders that look like they were done by the original Jigsaw killer, John Kramer. But he’s been dead for 10 years, so the hunt is on to find out who the copy cat is that’s pulling the strings.

Anticipating the release of this film, I marathoned all 7 SAW movies (aka the SAW-a-thon) to prepare myself. In the end, I was incredibly surprised at what I watched because SAW, to me, always looked like this torture porn extravaganza thing that just focused on the gore factor of the infamous Jigsaw traps.

However, after watching the series, my mind was blown. I’ll admit, some of the sequels were as bad as I expected, but the main thing that kept me going was the underlying intricate storyline that just kept on twisting and turning with every installment. Also mad props to Tobin Bell’s Jigsaw. He is a fantastic villain. His performance really made these films come alive, especially with his deranged yet somewhat philosophical monologues.

But anyway, after the second movie (when they realized these things made a lot of money), every sequel picked up right where the last one left off and ended with an eventual big twist that informed us that a bunch of crazy sh** was going on in the background that we didn’t even know about. These endings made me want to jump right into the next film to get more answers and just to see what they could do next with what they revealed. So, even though the traps got progressively more unnecessarily convoluted and the characters more disposable, the underlying saga is what really kept me invested.

The 7th movie (supposedly the final chapter) is a prime example because the movie’s main story and characters were, in my opinion, the worst in the franchise, but what it added to the overarching story was insanely surprising to say the least. So obviously, I was excited as hell to finally watch Jigsaw to see if they would pick up on the crazy ending of part 7. Being a soft reboot and all, I didn’t expect it to connect much to the past movies, but I had hope for at least something.

Unfortunately, my hopes and dreams were crushed. This movie stands on its own almost entirely other than a few easter eggs here and there. In general, that’s not really a bad thing but here it didn’t work. I’ll touch more on that later, but for now, let’s talk about the main problems.

Firstly, Jigsaw gives the franchise a new look, which I think made the whole thing feel less real. Instead of having our victims being trapped in some abandoned underground room in the sewers like usual, they are put in a well lit barn where they can look out the window freely. This takes away from the grungy, isolated feel of the trap rooms from the original films that made each situation feel so hopeless and raw. Here, it just looked too cinematic to actually be believable. Even the gore was dialed back with more CGI rather than practical effects.

There was also a semi-comic relief character, which I think was a poor choice for this kind of movie. The original SAW films took themselves really seriously to convey the pain and anger of the characters. So, the sincerity of the older movies was really lost in the new direction they took with this one.

The entire farm house game with these 5 people was also unbelievably well thought out. Characters do things or step in specific spots, where I kept thinking what if they didn’t do that. Like one guy tries to break the rules of the game, which triggers the next trap but what if he didn’t try to break the rules? How would they have proceeded to the next room otherwise? Additionally, some of the character motivations in this movie weren’t really clear, resulting in people making big decisions that have no real backing to them.

Ok, so let’s jump back to this movie being basically a stand alone and why it sucks because of it. First off, the ending twist was extremely disappointing. It was a big bait and switch where basically they showed something that could’ve been really interesting to explore and then just took it away to reveal a twist very similar to something they did in a previous SAW film. I was literally like “HOLY FU…oh w’ere doing this sh** again (rolls eyes).” What really killed it was that the twist revealed stuff that did not even make sense with the lore that was built up by the other movies. It honestly, felt like the people who made this movie didn’t even watch the other ones to get a sense of the events that took place before it, other than John’s death.

In conclusion, the real overarching issue is that Jigsaw doesn’t do anything new with the formula that we, SAW veterans, haven’t seen before. And the new stuff it does bring to the table sums up to a half baked version of what preceded it. If you haven’t seen any of the SAW movies before then this movie may actually entertain you if you’re looking for an interesting horror film (wouldn’t be surprised if it actually turns you into a SAW fan), but for fans of the franchise, I think you will agree with me in saying that this is one of the worst of the sequels because of its reluctancy to really shake things up. The only way the franchise could redeem itself is by following up with a SAW 9, which would continue the current storyline that right now leaves us with a lot of loose ends.

By the way, if you’re wondering about that classic theme. It’s in there! Glad to see they brought it back. Anyway, feel free to comment below about your thoughts on Jigsaw or on the franchise as a whole.

Also just for fun this is my ranking of the SAW movies:

1. SAW, SAW 2

2. SAW 3

3. SAW 6

4. SAW 4

5. SAW 5

6. SAW 7

7. JIGSAW

The Verdict: 4.5