Seven years later….

DUN-DUN-DUNNNNN!!!!

…and the games have just begun.  Wait.  What??!  Do my eyes deceive me?  Is Tobin Bell back to ring the bell of medical decency as a wronged patient?  Ah, to go into those details, my friends, would be sacrilege.  Suffer along with the rest of the audience!

We all might think that Jigsaw died a long time ago, but in the seventh sequel to Saw we are led to believe that there might be new life to John Kramer’s cold and calculating corpse. 

A rooftop chase starts things in motion.  Two triggers are pulled.  And a new game – with five strangers – is started.  Time if ticking.  Tick.  Tock.  Tick.  Tock.  BOOM.

Alongside a series of bodies discovered that have mysterious puzzle shapes cut out of them, the results of the rooftop chase bring about a meeting of the minds.  Is this all the internet’s fault?  Detective Keith Hunt (Clé Bennet) and Detective Halloran (Callum Keith Rennie) team up with a forensic scientist (Hannah Emily Anderson) to try and uncover the truth behind these copycat corruptions.  What could make it appear to be that the infamous Jigsaw has returned from the grave? 

With the arrival of Jigsaw, based on an enthusiastic pitch from its screenwriters, it appears 2010’s Saw 3D: The Final Chapter wasn’t quite the end of the maestro’s revenge plot.  Because, honestly, why would it be?  There’s still money to be milked from the torture porn franchise.  Unfortunately, this new team of filmmakers doesn’t fully embrace the practical with their effects and the CGI spatter is a-plenty, taking us right out of the damn game with its sheer ridiculousness.

Directed by Michael and Peter Spierig, Jigsaw gets new scribes, Peter Goldfinger and Josh Stolberg, to tackle the same tortured territory we’ve previously been over.  It is a sick form of demented déjà vu happening all over again and, after opening with a rather icy police chase, actually returns the series back to a healthy state. 

Somewhat.  We are still dealing with some fairly b-grade performances; none of them being as strong as Bell’s twisted take on Jigsaw.  And there’s something uniquely missing with this one, especially since its twist montage is just so…expected.  Yet, the film actually does a few tricky things on its way out the door.

I’m not saying Jigsaw is the bees knees when it comes to Halloween haunts but, quite frankly, this sick flick could have quickly gone done the dunk tank.  That opening?  Dreadful.  But the film bounces back nicely and, learning what NOT to do (thanks to everything after the original trilogy), gets us back to basics as a group of unrelated people find themselves in the same strange place with some pretty tough (and grizzly) choices to make.

With Jigsaw, good or bad, a new trap is set.

 MPAA Rating: R for sequences of grisly bloody violence and torture, and for language.
Runtime: 91 mins
Director: Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig
Writer: Pete Goldfinger, Josh Stolberg
Cast: Matt Passmore, Tobin Bell, Callum Keith Rennie
Genre: Horror | Mystery
Tagline: Become Jigsaw.
Memorable Movie Quote: "The games can be won."
Theatrical Distributor: Lionsgate
Official Site: https://www.facebook.com/Saw
Release Date: October 27, 2017
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: No details available.
Synopsis: Bodies are turning up around the city, each having met a uniquely gruesome demise. As the investigation proceeds, evidence points to one suspect: John Kramer, the man known as Jigsaw, who has been dead for ten years.

No details available.