Regardless of whether you’ve seen all the films, you’ll likely have an opinion on the Saw franchise. Occasionally gratuitous, undoubtedly extremely gory, it remains difficult to argue against their ongoing popularity with audiences. With Saw III (2006) a high point, there had been a steady decline in box office returns when the seemingly endless annual releases ended with Saw 3D in 2010. The franchise was, like its central ‘killer’ John Kramer, dead.
But if the horror genre has taught us anything, it’s that franchises don’t stay dead forever, and 2017 brought the release of the eighth film in the series and the first to feature the name of its antagonist, Jigsaw. This time, though, something is a little different.
If you chopped up the director of one of the previous films in a Kramer-esque trap their bones would display the word Saw like a stick of rock. James Wan who kicked the whole thing off is still attached as a producer, Darren Lynn Bousman helmed three films from 2005 to 2007, David Hackl who directed Saw 5 (2008) was a production designer on the previous three, and Kevin Greutet who had the honour on six and seven edited all the other films including this new one. One big, bloody family.
This time, however, the producers looked outside the spring-loaded box and hired auteur filmmakers Peter and Michael Spierig, better known for their thought-provoking sci-fi films Daybreakers (2009) and Predestination (2014). For the producers, this was a risk, in allowing outsiders control of their most prized possession. For the brothers, this was the first time they hadn’t written, produced, and directed their own project. And yet, it works.
The approach from the Speirigs is the key to Jigsaw. Instead of simply following a format that had yielded diminishing success, they approached this new film as more thriller than horror, something the initial film Saw (2004) had set out to do. Yes, there are still the traps and yes, there is still plenty of gore to keep fans happy. But there is something different here, a ‘whodunit’ that succeeds in keeping you guessing. There are times when you think you have a handle on things, but the various clues repeatedly contradict whatever theory you reach, and as such the finale is both bloodily extravagant and intellectually satisfying.
The Spierigs have also brought a different visual aesthetic to the franchise, with style very much matching substance, and their skill with the cast has drawn strong performances from Matt Passmore (Son Of The Mask, 2005), Callum Keith Rennie (Warcraft: The Beginning, 2016) and Laura Vandervoort (Ted, 2012). Most impressive, although somewhat predictably so, is Tobin Bell as the titular trap-master. There is something in Bell’s careful, thoughtful delivery that sets his character as one that should rightly enter genre annuls as one of the most interesting and terrifying, and Bell inhabits him wholly.
With few extras to speak of, aside from the usual commentaries and a documentary that is so routine, it could be for any film, the only true benefit of this Blu-ray release comes from the beauty garnered in the macabre surroundings. The deaths feel so, well, alive, and the locales so real you can almost taste the dried blood.
While largely one for fans of the franchise there is more than enough here to appease genre fans of all opinion. And given the working title for Jigsaw was Saw: Legacy, you can bet this is the last we’ll see of John Kramer.
JIGSAW / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: MICHAEL SPIERIG, PETER SPIERIG / SCREENPLAY: PETE GOLDFINGER, JOSH STOLBERG / STARRING: MATT PASSMORE, TOBIN BELL, CALLUM KEITH RENNIE, HANNAH EMILY ANDERSON / RELEASE DATE: FEBRUARY 26TH
