Saw V

With the Halloween season in full bloom you know that it is truly the Halloween season when the next installment of the Saw series comes out. The fifth installment starts off right after the fourth movie leaves off with Agent Strahm finding Jigsaw’s dead body when his own game starts as the door holding the dead bodies of Jigsaw, Amanda and the husband and wife from the third film closes.

Strahm, played by Scott Patterson, is then entered into his own game delving ever deeper into the mind of Jigsaw. Meanwhile, off in some distant, unknown place, five people wake up to find they are in one of Jigsaw’s final traps.

FBI Agent Mark Hoffman, played by Costas Mandylor, returns for his third movie. Although the only issue with his character is that he resembles Agent Strahm just enough that you sometimes get confused which person is which.

The traps that are set up in this movie are fantastic in their terror. The opening trap pits a murderer on a table where he must crush his own hands to the point where the bones are turned to powder or face getting chopped in half by the swinging pendulum that slowly is being lowered.

This movie delves much deeper into the connection Jigsaw has with his traps and how he does not feel he is killing. He sees himself as a more efficient way of rehabilitating each subject than our federal system. Tobin Bell plays Jigsaw so well that its difficult to picture anyone else in that role.

Although this movie continues the installment, it just misses the mark set by the other movies as it is meant simply to continue the story into what will surely become the sixth installment coming out next year. Don’t get me wrong though, this movie has you on the edge of your seat really feeling the pain and the agony these unlucky contestants are going through to save their own lives.

The grittiness of the traps is one of sure amazement. Each time you see someone in their own personal hell, even if you don’t like the character, you still are feeling the agony they have to go through to put their past behind them.

The fifth movie really ties all the movies together in a way that has not been done before. We are treated to flashbacks of some of the traps we may have forgotten over the series. The barbwire trap from the first movie is brought back for a horrible twist along with the house from the second movie.

Overall, I would give this movie a 6 out of 10 alone. But with keeping in mind that it's setting up the sixth picture, I would give this a 7.5 out of 10.