Jigsaw

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Halloween 2017

Now Playing (Bonus)
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From 2004 to 2010, the 'Saw' franchise kinda took things over for the Halloween season. In fact, it even became a part of their advertising campaign, suggesting "if it's Halloween, it must be 'Saw'". The franchise died with the release of 'Saw 3D - The Final Chapter', and like with most "Final Chapters" in horror, this was eventually resurrected.

Before diving in here, let me make a couple of things perfectly clear. 1) I haven't actually seen any of the 'Saw' films after the third one. The main reason being, it made for a well-rounded trilogy as it stood. 2) and another reason I didn't continue, I just plain don't like "torture porn" as a horror element. It works for some, but I am more a fan of stuff that gets to your head and allows your imagination to fill in the blanks. To me, less is more. To me, "torture porn" is a cheap way to make the audience squirm. I can't deny it's kind of effective, but I guess it's just not for me. So why did I see it? Well... I kinda missed my shot with a good 'Friday the 13th' special this October. It would have been great for Halloween, and it sucks 'cause my next opportunity for that date in October isn't until 2023. So, I went another way on it and thought "Saw is synonymous with Halloween, so we'll keep it simple". Having said all that, I'll try to review this as best I can for the audience it was meant for.

Well, in all honesty, what we have here is essentially what anyone would expect. There's a detective looking for what appears to be a Jigsaw copycat, and all the while a bunch of people get massacred, courtesy of jigsaw's brutal traps. Oh, and there's a big twist at the end, which is pretty cool, but that's all one can expect from a 'Saw' flick made seven years after it all ended. And that's sadly all I have to say about it. As usual, the traps are the real stars of the movie, and you don't necessarily sympathize with any of the characters. But really, are we here for that, or are we here to see people get ripped to shreds in unique and gruesome ways?

As horrible as that may sound, I do think that 'Saw' is at the point (or probably past it a long time ago) where people are just looking for that special something about it. Jason was all about brutal and quick kills, Freddy was all about his one-liners and teasing his victims, Pinhead was all about torture (the original "torture porn"?), with any of these Hollywood killers, we wanna see what we wanna see. So, for that, 'Jigsaw' is no real exception.

I think as long as you don't expect much more than... well... a 'Saw' movie, you won't be too bitterly disappointed. One can't set their life by 'Rotten Tomatoes', but it does show a good example here of how fans of the franchise heavily outweigh critics of the franchise, and there's just no stopping them. As it stands, critically, it has a meager 39%. The fans though, a whopping 95%! So in other words, this could probably start all over again and take over Halloween for a few more years... I kinda hope it doesn't, as Jigsaw has already made his mark, and made it well, but never say never - especially when it comes to money making horror franchises!

​3/5

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