Jigsaw: The Review

After a month of being released, was Jigsaw a flop or did it rise to the top of the box office?

Warning, this review contains spoilers!

Going back to its roots, Jigsaw is the half-sequel, half-prequel to James Wan and Leigh Whannell’s Saw. Directed by Michael and Peter Spierig, the Australian twins were definitely inspired by the Saw franchise, combining a new twist on the original elements that make Saw. If you like the Saw franchise then you will appreciate the storyline and how all the puzzle pieces fit together and make an interesting watch, however, if you weren’t bowled over by any of the Saw films then this isn’t going to give you a change of heart.

One of the iconic Saw traps

Ever since its release in 2004, Saw and its franchise has claimed the week of Halloween with its constant Halloween-week release dates, but after it’s supposed last instalment back in 2010, Halloween has never been quite the same – until now.

The franchise is back, as what seems to be the final (well we’ll see about that) instalment of Saw, making the franchise into an octalogy! Set ten years after the death of the original Jigsaw killer John Kramer (Tobin Bell), his puzzle piece trademark begins to circulate on bodies around the city, hinting at the start of a copycat killer.

While detective Halloran (Callum Keith Rennie) and medical examiner Nelson (Matt Passmore) investigate the many corpses left behind by the supposed copycat, a group of unsuspecting civilians fall victim to another of Jigsaw’s ‘tests’.

Rocking back and forth between the group entrapped in Jigsaw’s game and Halloran’s investigation gives a good mixture of storyline as well as the typical blood and gore that normally hits the screens of the Saw fan base. This story-line mainly focuses on medical examiner Nelson and his determination to hunt down the Jigsaw copycat, as we see many stereotypical suspects – Nelson’s assistant happens to be a Jigsaw fanatic; purchasing all of Kramer’s eccentric traps and even buying his lair from Saw 2 to use as her own private ‘studio’.

There is quite a lot of repetition from previous Saw films that bring the film down; circular saws, having to sacrifice blood and even the chained ankles from the original. After a seven-year hiatus, you’d expect some fresh ideas.

A new Jigsaw trap was unveiled to punish a man who sold a faulty motorbike to Kramer’s nephew leading to his untimely death, that had a similar affect to a spiralizer. The contraption was a sharp metal spiral that was constantly spinning, powered by the engine from the motorbike that killed Kramer’s nephew. The unfortunate man was strung up by his legs and slowly lowered into the death trap, resulting in his bloodied and sliced body being dumped out of the other end of the machine, Saw style.

Once the half way point has been hit a familiar face appears in the barn to accompany the survivors that have made it to the final test, John Kramer himself. Now for some this is where it got confusing – how can Kramer be killing these people if he died in Saw 3, ten years ago? This leaves two options; an awfully written storyline OR this is a past-present flash.

Answers are finally given at the end of the film as it’s shown that Nelson is actually the copycat, and that the footage we have been shown jigsaw and the group was actually a flashback to Jigsaw’s first ever game. So, this is a sequel with flashbacks to a prequel? It is then shown that Nelson was one of the players in Jigsaw’s first ever game, and the sole survivor. Police and investigators never knew of this game and so never knew Jigsaw until later, leaving Nelson to bond with Kramer and become the student to the teacher.

One of the futuristic traps featured in Jigsaw

Knowing that most of the audience would be baffled, it is then explained that Nelson had recreated Jigsaw’s first ever game, and so the bodies that were being found were not actually the people we were seeing playing in the game – as that was the flashbacks.

After an extremely confusing half an hour the film rounds itself off, explaining and linking things together, but leaving one last question. What was to happen with Halloran? His fate was sealed with a slightly sci-fi feel death. A contraption much like the exploding neck brace that was once used in Saw 3 on Dr Lynn Denlon, this neck brace was locked onto Halloran and would only be deactivated once Halloran ‘admitted his guilt’. However, things took a turn as Nelson never intended to free Halloran, and actually planned on framing him as the Jigsaw copycat. Special medical lasers, which were previously shown cutting through bone, were attached to the neck brace which slowly cut through Halloran’s face, killing him.

Jigsaw is clearly more of a concluding storyline sequel rather than just another blood-soaked horror movie and so to really enjoy it you have to experience all of the Saw films. Although this film might not be the show-stopping finale we all wanted, it is still a satisfying end to the franchise and definitely worth a watch.