Saw V (2008) Dir: David Hackl
- Ridley Coote
- 23 hours ago
- 2 min read
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The fifth film in the popular horror franchise known as; 'Saw', saw David Hackl take the director's chair for the first time, with this sequel coming out just a year after its predecessor - a trend for the first seven films in the franchise. By this point in its run, the franchise had more than solidified itself as the king of the extreme horror genre, and was known for its creative traps and shocking gore.
The opening scene was very reminiscent of Edgar Allan Poe's; 'The Pit And The Pendulum', which was very cool to see, but I wouldn't say the rest of the traps were quite as good. However, although the main sequence of traps weren't as individually strong as in some of the other films, I really liked the collective irony they held for the characters in them. From that perspective, it was very entertaining to watch.
The story at least flowed much better than its predecessor did, but the writing was still pretty poor, for the most part. With that said, that's not really what has made these films so popular. It's the creativity that has gone into the various traps, and on that point, this was a pretty solid film. The final scene was also one of the better ones in the franchise, and provided a very cool, if gross, visual for the film's ending.
By this point, Costas Mandylor had well and truly been established as the main character in the franchise, but his acting remained fairly so-so. One thing he did very well though, was with the vicious sneer that he utilised to really drill home his character's thoughts - it worked. The film may not feature 'Jigsaw' so much, with the focus on his legacy as a character, but Tobin Bell still takes a lot of the attention in these films. Although mostly through flashbacks, Bell still maintains his character work pretty strongly, despite the dodgy script. The likes of Scott Patterson, Betsy Russell, and Mark Rolston, also provide interesting, if not well-acted, supporting characters, particularly Patterson, on this occasion.
Overall, I thought this was definitely a step up from 'Saw IV', but it still didn't match up to the first film, or even the first two sequels. With that said, the film very much stuck to the identity which had already been carved out for the franchise, and was still an entertaining watch. The drama that accompanies the violence may not be written particularly well, but the traps were fun to watch, at least from an entertainment perspective.
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