Jigsaw (2017) #464

Jigsaw Movie Trailer

After an eight year hiatus, the “Saw” franchise is back and as deadly as ever. The series was a perennial favorite around Halloween, and “Jigsaw” hit theaters in late October in 2017. The previews leading up to the film’s release teased the possible return of Jigsaw himself, even though he died as violently as some of his victims in the third film. The previous films made clever narrative choices to include the The Jigsaw killer and this film delivers an equally interesting move. At any rate, it’s great to see the charismatic Mr Tobin Bell back with his devious devices.

The film begins nearly a decade after the death of the famous Jigsaw Killer, John Kramer. So police are thoroughly confused when they corner a criminal on the run with a strange device around his neck, who tells the police that he needs to begin a new game in order to live. Before he's able to say more, he's shot down by the officers on the scene. And so begins a new series of death traps for a group of five unlucky players. Like previous installments, the chosen five are not innocent and are being taught to atone for their transgressions.

One of the attractions of the series are the different death traps that John Kramer and his associates designed and the traps in "Jigsaw" do not disappoint. There are some very clever ones this time around, and as usual, there is sometimes a deeper meaning behind them. This film also includes a character that has begun collecting the different traps that John has created; but are they the originals are merely impressive fakes?

From a narrative standpoint, "Jigsaw" is a well craft story that honors the previous films in the series. Unlike a couple of the previous films that were written by Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, there doesn't feel like any obvious plot points that were planted to continue the film franchise. If there was, they were more subtle like those found in the first three films. We may soon know what clues may have been left behind by "Jigsaw" writers Josh Stolberg and Peter Goldfinger when  "Spiral: From the Book of Saw" premiers in 2021

Saw 3D (2010)

It’s 2010 and everything is being made into a 3-D movie, including the final installment of “Saw”. This is easily the weakest entry in the series. During production, it was decided that this would be the final film and that there wouldn’t be an eighth entry. It’s obvious that there are some different stories ideas that were tossed around because the movie doesn’t feel like it has a real solid story arc like the other films. The theme of redemption and rebirth is completely gone at this point. Detective Hoffman is a madman and a killer.

The strength of the film, compared to the previous few films, is that it focuses on only two storylines instead of several. The new storyline is about Bobby Dagen, a man who claims to have been a survivor of a Jigsaw game and is profiting from his lies. While at a survivors meeting, Dr. Gordon makes an appearance and mocks Bobby on film. Bobby is eventually kidnaped and forced to play a series of “games” that involve his wife and entourage. The first test he survives. The second “game” is for his publicist, where he has to pull a key and hook out by a string that’s in her stomach. She dies. The third “game” is for his lawyer, where Bobby has to lift and hold a heavy weight with his shoulders while his legs are impaled with short spikes; he fails to hold up the weight for 30 seconds and she dies. The fourth “game” involves Bobby’s best friend who it blind folded and has to walk across some thin planks before the timer runs out and hangs him; he dies. The next “game” forces Bobby to pull two of his teeth in order to find the combination of the lock to the door. The final “game” forces Bobby reenact the “game” that he has been lying that he survived; he needs insert hooks into his pictorials and climbing chain in order to connect two extension cords. He falls to the ground when his muscles tear. When the timer runs out, his wife is encased and cooked to death while he watches.

The second storyline is about Detective Hoffman and his attempts to frame Jill as the killer and to get revenge on her and the special affairs agent that turned him in a few years earlier. There is a “game” that involves four racist gang members that draw the attention of the special affairs agent but it’s just a ruse to distract them while Hoffman goes to the precinct and kills everyone. He finally gets to Jill and places the reversible bear trap on her, which goes off, tearing a huge hole in her face and killing her instantly. As Hoffman is leaving one of his lairs, Dr. Gordon and two others in pig suits knock Hoffman out. The big and final twist is that John Kramer nursed Dr. Gordon back to health after he sawed his foot off. It was with Dr. Gordon’s help that the more intricate “games” were set up, and it was his suggestion to use Lynn and Jeff in “Saw 3”. Dr. Gordon was also to protect Jill and if anything happened to her, he was to act with all of John’s revenge. So Dr. Gordon takes Hoffman to the original industrial bathroom, chains him up but tosses the saw out the door, locking him alone in the dark to die. And thus the series ends…

Saw 6 (2009)

“Saw 6” feels like an unneeded movie except for the fact that the current set of writers have left so many loose ends strewn about (purposely done so they can ensure future sequels) that they had to make it in order to please the core fan-base. There are as many flashback scenes as there are those that are set in the present; this makes the film as difficult to review as the previous installment.

What this film does succeed in is the series of tests that affect almost the entire insurance agency that denied John Kramer, aka The Jigsaw Killer, a chance to undergo radical new treatment for his brain cancer. I love the concept that the victims are associated with one man, their boss, who was personally involved with John while he was alive; the victims in the previous film had nothing to do with John or Detective Hoffman but were suspects on Agent Strahm’s list during his investigation into the building fire. Now how did Detective Hoffman know that Detective Kerry had contacted Agent Strahm and Perez? He didn’t, so this is pretty sloppy. But there is a down side to this series of tests.  These “games” have more survivors than any other “Saw” film and it boggles the logical mind as to how ONE man was able to kidnap and set the traps up for so many people. But the writers have all of the flashbacks and cover-ups to worry about, so it’s something I think that want us to overlook as well.

William, the head of his department at the insurance agency, is the person directly responsible for declining coverage for John to take the radical medical treatment. He is then forced to play a series of “games” that involve the different people at his agency. While William is going through his tests, a mother and son are watching him advance by a monitor, trapped in a holding cell with a clock counting down.

The first “game” is between William and the janitor. The trap is set so that every time you take a breath, a vice crushes your body a little each time until your dead. The only way to survive is to breathe in less than the other victim and wait until they are killed. The janitor was a lifelong smoker and quickly fails the test.

The second “game” forces William to decide who should live and who should die. Jigsaw throws William’s logic about who should receive medical coverage back in his face with this game, making William choose between an older woman with a family history of diabetes but has a family or a young healthy file clerk whose death no one would notice. William struggles with the choice but finally chooses to save his secretary. He gets to remove another bomb from his limbs and move onto the next “game”.

In the third “game”, William’s lawyer has a device that will go off in 90 seconds and when it does, a spike will impale her brain. All she needs to do is get to the key, making her way through various pipes and columns of burning steam. William can help her by turning on valves that will burn him instead. She makes it through the maze but finds out that the key has been sewn inside William. She comes at him with a saw and ends up dying when the clock runs out.

The fourth game involves William’s team who goes through the applications looking for who they should reject or accept. There are six team members and four shots in a shotgun. He must choose which two get to live as they sit tied on a spinning carousel.

The last test in the series isn’t for William to play but for the mother and son. Their husband/father was one of the many people who were denied directly by William. The son chooses to kill William, pulling a lever that causes William to be impaled with needles that inject him with acid.

The movie opens up with a “game” for two players. There are accused of being predatory lenders, so now they must sacrifice their own flesh to survive. The person who cuts off the most wins while the other has a set of screws drilled into their heads via a device that they are both wearing. The winner cuts off her arm at the elbow while the man tried to trim the fat around his stomach. This is perhaps the most gruesome “game” visually in the series.

One sup-plot in the film follows the flashbacks of when John was alive and how he ultimately got Jill to go along with his plans. The most convincing evidence John provides is showing that his method “changed” Amanda, a heroin addict that Jill considered to be a “loss cause”.  It also shows that Amanda is the one who encouraged and made Cecil rob the clinic, making her an accomplice in the death of John’s unborn son.

Another sup-plot of the film includes the scenes about the clues that the FBI has to figure out who the real Jigsaw accomplice is, clues that Detective Hoffman was unaware of. These include the kind of knife that he used to cut out the jigsaw shape piece of flesh from his first killing, Seth Baxter, and the victim from the first “game” in this film. The next clue they find is a different voice pattern on the tape cassette that was found at Seth Baxter’s crime scene. Detective Hoffman goes with Agent Erickson and Agent Perez, who survived the Billy doll’s shotgun attack. He kills the two as well as a technician when they realize that it’s his voice.

The third and final sup-plot is the mystery contents that John left for Jill. Inside were six profiles of the people that John considered loose ends, including William, William’s sister, and the mother and son. Detective Hoffman takes the five known profiles and gets to work while Jill keeps the sixth a secret. The big reveal at the end is that Detective Hoffman is the sixth and final loose end, and Jill manages to take Hoffman by surprise. While he is unconscious, Jill attaches a new reversible bear trap (the kind that was first used on Amanda in “Saw”). He wakes up in time and lodges the trap between two bars. When the trap goes off, it merely rips apart some of his face, but he is alive and ready to extract his revenge.

Saw 5 (2008)

In “Saw 5”, the concept begins to feel old and it’s obvious how the writers are trying to find different ways to keep a backstory moving forward. In this film, that backstory focuses on how and why Detective Mark Hoffman became the second assistant to Jigsaw, and how Detective Hoffman attempts to cover his tracks from the persistent FBI Agent Strahm.

The first victim is a convicted murderer named Seth was released from prison due to a technicality. You learn later on that Seth killed Detective Hoffman’s sister and this was his act of revenge, posing as Jigsaw. John Kramer found out about this and that is how their relationship began. The “game” that Seth is meant to play is simple; if he can push hands into a vice and keep each one inside long enough for his hands to be crushed, then he’ll be released and escape the pendulum that is swing down towards him. But since Detective Hoffman wants revenge, the trap is rigged to not release Seth at all.

The second “game” we see involves Agent Strahm, still in the meat packing plant from the previous film. He doesn’t follow the instructions on the tape cassette he finds and he is quickly overcome by the pig costume. When he awakes, he finds that his head is trapped in a box that is filling up with water. He survives by taking a pen and punching a hole in his neck in order to breath. When the police and medics arrive, Detective Hoffman walks out with Lynn’s and Jeff’s daughter, looking like a hero. It’s all a part of his plan until he sees that Agent Strahm survived his game. Now Detective Hoffman has to figure out how to continue to cover his actions.

The next scene takes place in a lawyer’s office. The lawyer is instructed to give Jill Tuck, Jigsaw’s ex-wife, a film and a box. The contents are revealed later in the next film...

After receiving a promotion to Lt Detective, Hoffman finds a note in his office that reads “I know who you are”. He then goes to the hospital and finds Agent Strahm in Agent Perez’s room, whose bed is covered in blood. Agent Strahm continues to believe that Hoffman is connected to Jigsaw. After their argument, his boss Dan Erickson comes in and reassigns Agent Strahm from the Jigsaw case after the body count becomes intolerable.

The next scene sets up the main “game”, a series of tests for five strangers who all wake up with chains around their necks. They are all connected by their involvement in a building fire that killed eight innocent people. The series of tests are meant to be played by a team and not individuals, but since fear and survival instincts kick in, they don’t realize this until it’s down to just two people and the final tape suggests that they work together. This is perhaps my favorite series of tests, after the original. In the first “game”, they have to grab a key to unlock the chain before they are pulled back into place and decapitated by a blade. One key works for all of the locks but they each try to grab their own, making it so they are unable to each grab one. As the clock ticks down, a bottle full of shrapnel will explode and killing anyone still in the room.

The second “game” has the four survivors having to break various jars hung above their heads to find one of three keys to use to unlock a tunnel to hide in when this room’s nail bombs explode. Of course there is more than enough room for two people in a tunnel…

The third “game”, the players must connect five wires together to form a circuit to open the locked door before the bomb goes off. One of the women is about to attack the lone guy, but the other woman strikes down the first. They throw her body into the tub and electrocute her so they can escape. If only there were all still alive, they could have endured an annoying shock.

In the final game, the two have to cut themselves in order to fill a tub full of blood. Because there are only two people left, they are forced to bleed themselves practically dry. Only the woman lives.

The rest of the movie is full of flashbacks involving Detective Hoffman and John Kramer. It also shows Agent Strahm’s own investigation as he visits the previous crime scenes. Detective Hoffman takes advantage of this by framing Agent Strahm as the Jigsaw accomplice, which Agent Erickson comes to fully believe. Agent Strahm eventually finds another Jigsaw lair and finds another “game”. The tape cassette he finds tells him to climb inside a glass coffin, but he makes Detective Hoffman get in when they find each other. Unfortunately, the glass coffin is the escape; the walls in the room become triggered and close in together. Detective Hoffman watches as Agent Strahm is crushed to death. 

Saw 3 (2006)

Third entry of the "SAW" series is once again directed by Darren Lynn Bousman and written by Leigh Whannell from a story by James and himself.

In “Saw 3”, John Kramer, aka the Jigsaw Killer, is literally on his death bed as his brain tumor continues to slowly take his life. Lynn Denlon, an ER doctor, is kidnapped and taken hostage via “game” to operate on John to ease his suffering and prolong his life. She has a bomb around her neck and it will explode if John dies. In a subtle turn of events, John warns Amanda that her life is in Lynn’s hands. Throughout the movie, Amanda’s jealousy grows as she watches John appreciate the work that Lynn is performing while under duress. Amanda is nearly pushed to the edge during a scene where Lynn is operating while John is having a memory flashback of his wife; when become conscious, he whispers “I love you”.

The first “game” in the movie is a man named Troy, a repeat convict, who wakes up and finds himself in a class room. He has nearly a dozen chains hooked in to his body. Like most Jigsaw “games”, the victim had two minutes to rip each chain out of his body before the timer went and a bomb with nails as shrapnel goes off. Only problem with the trap is that the door to the room was wielded shut, so even if Troy beat his “game”, he would still have been killed by the bomb. This is NOT a part of Jigsaw’s modus operandi. Also, this crime scene introduces Detective Mark Hoffman, a character that would appear in each following sequel.

The second “game” in the movie involves Detective Allison Kerry, the only other character besides John and Amanda to appear in the first three films. Amanda wakes up and finds that she is trapped in a device that will rip her chest open if she doesn’t get it unlocked. The key is placed in a glass jar in front of her. All she has to do is grab the kill and unlock the device. She manages to get the key and unlock the lock but finds that the device has impaled her thoroughly and there is no possible way for her to escape in time. The timer runs out and she is killed. It’s another trap that looks like a Jigsaw “game” but wasn’t designed by him…. (This was the second “game” that made me gasp because I loved her character. The first “game” was the syringe scene in the second film…shudder…).

The main “game” involves an angry and vengeful father named Jeff, whose young child was killed by a hit and run. His anger is all consuming to the point that his daughter is “nothing” and he neglects her and becomes angry when she is found sleeping with one of her brother’s stuff toys; a perfect candidate for Jigsaw. When he wakes up, he begins his own “game” by finding those responsible for the death of his child and the injustice that he believes that took place.

First is a witness to the accident who didn’t testify at the trial. Jeff finds a naked woman in a freezer, and when her “game” begins, coolant is sprayed over her and slowly kills her. All Jeff needs to do is to reach behind some painfully cold pipes to grab the key that will unlock her chains. He yells at her asking her why she did what she did before finally grabbing the key. By then it’s too late and she’s dead.

The second victim that Jeff finds is the judge that ruled so lightly against his son’s accidental killer. All Jeff needs to do is to incinerate his son’s stuffed toys in order to get a key and free the judge. While he makes up his mind on what to do, the judge is laying on his back in a large vat that is being filled up with sawed apart rotted pig corpses, slowly drowning in the filth and maggots. Jeff finally burns the toys and saves the judge.

The third victim on Jeff’s journey is the killer himself, a medical student who accidently hit Jeff’s son. Timothy is attached to “The Rack”, a device that will twist and snap each limb one by one until it snaps his head around full circle. The key to this trap is attached to a shotgun.  Jeff has dreamed of shooting Timothy, so Jigsaw’s question of “Will you do onto others as you will do onto yourself” is taken to a literal level. Jeff finds a way to unscrew the key from its string but the gun still goes off, hitting the judge in the face and killing him. With key and hand but not knowing where to use it, Jeff sadly watches Timothy die.

THE TWIST –

After Jeff finishes the third test, John tells Amanda to let Lynn go. Amanda refuses and John repeats the fact that Lynn is more important to Amanda than shall ever know. Amanda still refuses and shoots Lynn right as Jeff walks in. Jeff uses the gun he found and kills Amanda. John was always testing Amanda to see if she was worthy of his legacy. She was a murderer and John hates murders, the people who played her unwinnable games were just victims.

Jeff, who hasn’t learned anything, slits John’s throat and kills him which in turn makes the bomb around Lynn’s neck explode. The final victim is Jeff and Lynn’s daughter who ends up being locked alone within the complex with a limited supply of air. John was Jeff’s last test and he failed.

Favorite moment – the scene where John and Amanda prepare the bathroom where “Saw” took place. John is applying makeup to make himself look like he shot himself in the head while Amanda locks Adam up and places him in the tub.

Amanda and Lynn

Detective Kerry

Lynn after the bomb!

Troy the Convict

Saw 2 (2005)

“Saw 2” came out to the theaters the year after the original premiered and builds nicely upon the established storyline. James Wan had moved on to other projects by this time and Leigh Whannell came back to rewrite a script that the current director, Darren Lynn Bousman, had written previously. The end result is another clever work that seems larger and feels like a step in the right direction.

The film is the Jigsaw Killer, aka John Kramer, who is apprehended by the police during a raid. John is cocky and self-assured and reveals that he wants to play one of his “games” with Detective Eric Matthews. All Detective Matthews needs to do is to listen to John talk for two hours and if he does so, he’ll be able to see his son again. At this point it is revealed that Detective Matthews son Daniel is playing a “game” of his own; Daniel is trapped in an inescapable house with seven other victims, one of which is Amanda Young, the only survivor of a Jigsaw “game”. The eight victims in the house have two hours to work together to find a way out before a deadly toxin in the air kills them. The eight victims are all connected by being convicts who were falsely arrested by Detective Matthews after he planted evidence on each of them, and none of them realize that Daniel is his son.

The first victim, Michael, is a police informant, a useful contact for Detective Matthews. His "game" is that he needs to dig out a key that has been surgically placed behind his eye. He had one minute to dig into his head with a scalpel, get the key, and unlock a iron maiden-like spring trap on his head.

The first "game" in the house wasn't intended for any particular person. The rule was simple, don't use the key in the locked door. One unnamed guy did and he was shot in the eye by a booby trapped gun.

The second house "game" is for Obi. He is a con artist who helped kidnapped the other housemates. His "game" is to climb into an oven and retrieve two vials of an antidote. He goes in and gets the first one without a problem. The second needle triggers the door to close and the oven to turn on. Obi has the chance to turn a valve that will stop the flames but he would be seriously burned by doing so. By not, he'll burn up and die anyway....which he does.

The third house "game" was for Xavier. The group finds a room that has a pit full of syringes with a key somewhere inside. Xavier throws Amanda into the pit and she finds the key but Xavier doesn't use the key on time to free them.

The final "game" is a trap that traps a person's hands (and cuts them up). The player of course puts both hands into the slots so they can't free one without the other. Who knows who this trap was meant for.

One house guest dies from the toxin before getting to play a game while Daniel and Amanda never find their own "game" to play.

Detective Matthews fails his game after he beats John up badly and John finally agrees to take the Detective to the house. But Detective Daniels failed his "game" and is now gone when the safe in John lab opens automatically and reveals his son safe inside.

The big twist at the end of this film is the reveal that Amanda is actually Jigsaw's apprentice and helper. It explains how he was able to kidnap and set up the "games" in the first movie! 

The best part of this film is when Daniel and Amanda escape into the industrial bathroom where Dr. Gordon and Adam were chained up! Seeing the aftermath and the decayed bodies is incredible and a great way to tie both films together.

The informant and his "game"

John Kramer, the Jigsaw Killer

Hand trap!

Amanda playing Xavier's "game"

The housemates

Saw (2004)

The original “Saw” is a thrilling and suspenseful mystery that focuses on two men trapped in an old dirty industrial bathroom who find themselves the current “victims” of the Zigsaw Killer. The movie stars Cary Elwes as Dr. Lawrence Gordon and Leigh Whannell (who wrote the script) as Adam and has support from Danny Glover, Shawnee Smith, and Dina Myer. This film was written as a standalone movie and because of this the story takes its time and really focuses on the complex trap that Dr. Gordon and Adam find themselves in.

The Jigsaw Killer places very people in a situation where they are forced to play one of his “games”. They are chosen because he believes that they are taking their lives for granted or are outright wasting their lives. He feels so strongly about this because he has found a new love for life after being diagnosed with an operable brain tumor.

There are a total of five “games” that are presented in this film.

• 1.       Paul, who tried to slit his wrist earlier, finds himself naked inside a razor wire maze. He has two hours to find his way through the maze before the only door leading out slams shuts and locks him inside.
• 2       Mark is scamming his employer and his insurance company by claiming to be sick and or disabled, but the Zigsaw Killer knows better. Because of this, Mark has been covered in a highly flammable substance and is given a candle to try to read and find the proper combination code that will unlock a safe and give him the key to leave the room his trapped in. The ground is covered in broken glass so his chances of dropping the candle are incredibly high.
• 3.       Amanda, a heroin user the only known survivor of a Zigsaw “game” wakes up to find a reversible bear trap-like device locked on her head. In order to escape, she has to take a scalpel and find the key that is located inside another man in the room with her, who happens to still be alive but is currently drugged. She guts the man and finds the key just in time. This nameless victim is the first person who isn’t explained at any point.
• 4.       Dr. Gordon and Adam – Dr. Gordon is tasked with killing Adam in two hours, by 6:00pm, otherwise his wife and daughter will be killed and he will be locked away in the bathroom forever. Dr. Gordon has been chosen to play a “game” because he was the uncaring doctor who belittled his patient, the Jigsaw Killer, and because he is cheating on his wife. Adam is chosen because he makes his living by taking pictures of people committing acts that they shouldn’t, people like Mark and Dr. Gordon. All Dr. Gordon needs to do is saw off his foot that is chained down and shoot Adam with the gun that the corpse in the middle of the room has. He does so after the deadline.
• 5.       The fifth and final victim is Zep, an orderly who works at the same hospital as Dr. Gordon. He has been poisoned and the only way to survive is to kill Dr. Gordon’s wife and daughter. He is playing a “game” because he is deemed to a murderer who is willing to kill and innocent woman and her child just to save his own life. The would-be killer fails and goes to where Dr. Gordon is. Adam, who was only wounded, kills Zep by using the ceramic top of a toilet to bludgeon him. Dr. Gordon crawls away to get help and leaves Adam alone in the room.

The big twist at the end of this film is the fact that Jigsaw was the corpse in the middle of the room, so when he stands up and looks down at Adam, the shock is genuine. 

Dr. Lawrence Gordon

Adam

Amanda

Author's Note - Saw the series

In 2004, director James Wan and writer/actor Leigh Whannell made their big screen debut with their independent film “Saw”. Did they know that this little film was going to become a franchise, spawning six sequels that would come out (almost) every October following the original’s release? Did they know that this movie was going to help launch their careers into the successful professionals that they are today?

The “Saw” series introduced us to the evil little puppet Billy, the Jigsaw Killer, and Jigsaw’s famous min-tape recordings that tell his victims the rules of the game that they are about to play

While the series has had its share ups and downs, each new chapter was able to honor the events from the previous films and build upon its mythos. Only near the end were there a few glaring questionable moments, but otherwise the series was able to take any and all loose ends and tie them up and together in some of the most surprising and twisting ways; most of the loose ends weren’t even noticeable until they’re were tied up! It’s these small details, as well as the traps and the cast of characters that I want to focus on during my review of this series this week.