Jigsaw

Starring: Matt Passmore, Tobin Bell, Callum Keith Rennie, Hannah Emily Anderson, Cle Bennett, Laura Vandervoot, Paul Braunstein, Mandela Van Peebles, Brittany Allen
Directed by: Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig
Rating: R
Genre: Horror, Mystery
2017

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A new game begins and detectives question whether it's a copycat or Jigsaw (Tobin Bell), who's been dead for ten years.

Review:

Tim: Sigh. After a gap of seven years, we get another Saw movie. The eighth film, Jigsaw actually reverses the quality decline for the first time in the franchise, but that says more about the depths to which the last movie sank than anything about this movie. This movie is fine, but it's just another film in the franchise. It doesn't offer anything especially new, sheds no new light on the story (although it pretends to) and really, doesn't offer a compelling reason for the movie to exist. The box office reflects that- it's the second-lowest box office total in the franchise. If the hope was to reinvigorate the franchise, this film doesn't do it.

I really liked the first movie, but from there, the film started a slow decline. Each one felt interchangeable to the previous one. Sure, the diabolical traps might be different, but each Rube Goldberg machine started to blend together. What was the movie where their faces got scraped off? Or the limbs ripped from their body? I just made those two up, but I'm sure they happened at some point in one of these films. There's only so many ways the human body can be mutilated, and we've pretty much seen them all at this point. Jigsaw doesn't offer up anything new. It's the same old traps, people die by one by one. We've seen this movie before.

I don't really want to dive deep into the plot, because the plots have become as unnecessarily complicated as any one of Jigsaw's torture devices. I honestly can't keep track of the many twists and turns, each film attempting to shine new light on a character and plot that has felt redundant for many films. The movie tells its story like we should be shocked, to sit up and yell at each new revelation. The problem is that we've been down this path so many times that there's nothing left to surprise us. We've grown numb to both the physical torture and the latest twist in the now-boring Jigsaw saga. This story has been told again and again and no trickery will make it feel new. You can combine different timelines, unmask a new killer, none of it makes sense or matters anymore. This is a film about people we don't care about waking up and slowly dying by random, absurd torture devices. It's almost funny at this point.

Now, for fans of this franchise, I'm sure they were happy to see Tobin Bell once again. I get that to certain people, the blood lust this film provides is cathartic or fun. That's fine, I get that for many people, it would be fun to revisit this franchise and the characters. I'm not suggesting this is a terrible movie. It firmly plays in the same wheelhouse it's been in since its inception. I wouldn't fault people for liking it. It just feels redundant and generic to me. I certainly didn't hate the movie- there is something fun about seeing if people can escape from the trap.

However, whatever mild entertainment Jigsaw provides can't shake the feeling that the eighth film in this franchise is unnecessary. There's one movie watcher here who's hoping the next break between films exceeds the seven years for this one.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Saw, Saw II, Saw III, Saw IV, Saw V, Saw VI, Saw: The Final Chapter