Jigsaw (Review)

'Jigsaw' is a horror film and is the 8th installment to the 'Saw' franchise. This film stars Matt Passmore, Callum Keith Rennie, Clé Bennett, and Hannah Emily Anderson. This film is directed by the Spierig Brothers.

After a 7 year break the 'Saw' franchise is back with a  sequel which plans to revitalise the franchise into a new era. While no one seems to be excited for this new era, I went in with an open mind and I felt quite excited about seeing the Jigsaw killer return to cinemas, mostly because mainstream horror films have focused more on the supernatural side rather than violent homicidal maniacs and to be honest I prefer my horror films to be about the latter.

From my critical stand point 'Jigsaw' is not a good film. It's writing is clumsy, the acting is sub-par and the story, while admittedly makes more of an effort than previous saw films, it eventually becomes a quite convoluted and cartoonish.

With that being said though, if you know what your expectations should be from the saw sequels then you'll probably have a good time. The pacing is good, the traps are fun in a blood-lust sort of way and are more plausible than in previous films (except the first). The music works well and the production is fairly impressive. Above all though, the filmmakers actually tried to make something a little different and I think praise should be given, although not all of it sticks there a some ideas in there which are put to effective use. The film has a sense of self awareness and dark humour that the other ones lack and while I usually find postmodernism to be forced and annoying in recent films, I felt that the film really needed it to make the experience more enjoyable.

Overall it's not, from a critical stand point 'a good movie', but it's one of the better installments from the franchise (the best since Saw II) and despite it's flaws I found it to be enjoyable and entertaining.

Rating: 5/10