CheekyChicago

The sixth installment of the Saw franchise was….not that bad. It is actually the best one since the original. I went into this film thinking, “I’ll see some cool horror kills and that will be it.” Surprisingly, the story was passable and had two of the more intense scenes I’ve seen in a long time.

For those of you that don’t know, the Saw movies center themselves around a serial killer named Jigsaw, who sickeningly forces his victims into a “game”. He creates elaborate traps in which the victims must try to free themselves. In order to play the “game,” they must either hurt themselves or kill someone else in the process. Usually, the victims fail; making their deaths grotesque and pretty hardcore. The victims are usually predators in their own right. Jigsaw is filled with “morals”; he picks people he deems immoral and tests their “will to live.” Kind of a cool concept – I mean, the whole justice versus murder thing.

Saw VI continues this concept with William, a health insurance executive who has his own algorithm that determines whether a client will receive the proper healthcare. Jigsaw, thinking this is immoral, “tests” William by putting him in a sequence of traps that force him to make snap decisions on who lives and who doesn’t.

The Saw films have a really tricky storyline that is woven throughout all six films…I don’t bother paying attention to this anymore. It’s convoluted and – quite frankly – doesn’t make much sense. However, Saw VI’s storyline stood on its own. There are some pretty crafty moral dilemmas William is faced with. In one trap, William has to decide whether a healthy young male or an older woman prone to diabetes will live or die.

By no means is Saw VI a masterpiece. The acting is amateur at best, the technical aspects are nothing special and the dialogue is so-so. Besides the shockingly decent storyline, what really did work was the gore. The Saw franchise is obviously known for blood and guts and Saw VI did not skimp. Remember the two scenes I mentioned before? One: two victims have to cut their own flesh off in order to survive. The other: six victims are chained to a rotating merry-go-round. Without spoiling anything, the latter was really intense.

Again, this is not a fantastic film, but for what the movie is trying to do, it executes it perfectly and is the second best installment in the Saw saga.