by Ian Ferguson

Created on: October 27, 2008

After a year of waiting I finally sat eagerly in the cinema awaiting the commencement of the next installment of the SAW series.

The film focuses on Agent Strahm as he suspects Detective Hoffman's involvement as Jigsaws accomplice along with Hoffman himself setting traps and obviously working towards this great twist we were all expecting. The film interweaves with a new set of people escaping from more Jigsaw traps which have no bearing on the story being told so I assume this is a lead up to SAW VI. The traps involved, unlike ALL the other Saw films, where of low caliber and very simple, probably all the leftovers from the other films.

Unfortunately the makers of SAW have set themselves a bar regarding traps, blood and great story with a big twist at the end. The tag for this one you'll never guess how it will end' certainly did not live up it. I had this one figured out in roughly 30 minutes. The plot itself lacked character development and I felt i was watching a filler episode of Stargate or something to that effect.

Following Agent Strahm through previous crime scenes with him thinking out load of what MAY have happened didn't do anything to stimulate my excitement and in fact got quite annoying in places. I felt Scott Patterson and Costas Mandylor, who I personally like as actors didn't make an impact this time around. This is probably due to the dull script. Sorry to say Tobin Bell (Jigsaw) had a limited role in which the story portrays him as a barely convincing mentor for the new Jigsaw Det. Hoffman. On a good note Betsy Russell does a great Job as usual which was a relief.

As a debut director and Saw 2, 3 and 4 production designer, David Hackle, I was glad to see the gritty look of sets and scenes but again lacked in directorial flair and the film turned into a boring low budget slasher flick with no slashing involved. Don't get me wrong there are some beautiful shots like the pendulum scene and Strahm in the box but we have grown to love the fancy scene merging and hyper close ups. Maybe he wanted to change pace a bit by slowing to almost go backwards.

In conclusion the disappointing Saw 5 dose not give the audience the suspence and excitment which, as fans we are all have been expecting and desrve and has done nothing for the franchise except send it to the realms of none intelectural drival along with Final Destination and others i dont care to mention. Maybe they can give Saw 6 a huge boast to make up for this serious short fall in entertainment. Of course this will end up in my Saw collection and i will give it a few more watches, maybe it will grow on me like that wart which after 2 years becomes apart of you.

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