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JIGSAW
Starring: Matt Passmore, Tobin Bell, Callum Keith Rennie
DirectorS: Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig
Genre: Crime, Horror, Mystery
Rating: 18+
RUNTIME: 91 Mins
There’s no getting rid of the Jigsaw killer … he’s back to haunt us all again in Bahrain’s cinemas.
One reviewer described John ‘Jigsaw’ Kramer as ‘the most undead movie murderer in the history of horror’ and he’s not far wrong.
Even though the character was killed in Saw III, Jigsaw returned via flashbacks in four subsequent Saw offerings up until Saw 3D: The Final Chapter in 2010.
There was a time when a new Saw flick became a celebrated Halloween tradition, consecutively ruling the October horror box office each annum for seven seasons.
But by the 3D exercise, it was clear there was really nowhere to take the franchise. Remember, by that point, the film’s villain had already been dead for not one, not two, not three, not four, but five films but still found ways to mangle the unlucky far after his mortal remains were buried.
It’s little wonder filmmakers continued to find ways to keep Jigsaw around given that Tobin Bell, the dark-eyed, steely voiced character actor who portrayed him for the better back of the last decade, is really why movie-goers continued to show up.
After seven Saw-less years, the thrills return in Jigsaw, which arrived just in time for Halloween 2017.
Screenwriters Pete Goldfinger and Josh Stolberg have employed a narrative trick to bring the villain of the piece back this time around to good effect.
If you can recall, the franchise is based on part social experiment-vigilante-justice, some would suggest with an immature grasp of morality. The angle is simple, of course, target people who have disrespected the blessings of life.
And, Jigsaw returns to the old Saw bones formula of strangers trapped together in a madhouse, with horrid puzzles there to be unlocked with grisly keys that require his victims to deliver their bloody sacrifices and more.
The unfortunate main character has survived cancer, a dead baby, suicide and being poor to become this notorious murderer. All Jigsaw’s prey hold dark secrets, and his off-screen voice commands them to ‘make their choice’ between maiming themselves to live or certain death if they do nothing.
Jigsaw continues to be jury and executioner. Each of the strangers has done something for which their tormenter believes they must suffer.
However, when victims are again discovered on the streets, the police are right to suspect it is Jigsaw’s handiwork, but how can that be with the maniac dead and buried? Is it really him, or are they looking for a copycat?
Never mind that in Saw’s I, II and III, the perpetrator was a 70-year-old frail man dying of cancer who somehow managed to engineer warehouses full of deadly devices that always hit their mark and continued to do so flawlessly for five more films after he was killed off.
Logic isn’t the point; it’s the vicarious experience of terror, which Jigsaw delivers alongside unnerving suspense and the gross-out factor.
The material is played with a straight, non-ironic face that follows in the footsteps of previous directors James Wan, Darren Lynn Bousman, David Hackl and Kevin Greutert. While one can never call a new Saw film experimental, Jigsaw touches enough of the series’ tropes while simultaneously trying out a few new tricks.
It’s a satisfying way to carry on with a known brand. Mr Bell remains mostly off-screen even though his voice once again booms to introduce each successive brutal trial, apart from one lengthy scene when we get to see another side of the actor.
It’s a sure fire box office smash but not one for the faint-hearted. And there’s strong support from the cast, particularly Matt Passmore’s Logan Nelson, a military veteran and former doctor, and Brittany Allen, who plays Carly who inadvertently caused the death of an asthmatic woman by stealing her purse, which had her emergency inhaler inside. Blow me, she’s really going to regret that.
Let the games commence.
Now showing in: Novo, Cineco, Seef II, Wadi Al Sail, Saar, Al Jazeera
Kristian’s Verdict: 4/5
