Saw 5 (2008) Review

It's about a group of new Jigsaw victims and a continued investigation to catch who's behind it. So basically it's Saw, Saw 2, Saw 3 and Saw 4.

Saw 5 was directed by David Hackl (who also directed Into The Grizzly Maze) and stars Tobin Bell (from The Sandman and 12 Feet Deep), Costas Mandylor (from Daddy's Girl and Residue) and Scott Patterson (from Saw IV).

You Won't Believe How It Ends

Saw 5 opens up with a guy strapped to a table with a giant pendulum swinging above his belly. The only way out is to voluntarily crush his hands to a pulp. He does, it doesn't work, something's up. Cut to FBI Agent Strahm trying to break out of the room that Lt. Hoffman locked him in at the end of Saw 4. He finally gets out, only to find a new game that has his name written all over it.

Jigsaw is dead, his sidekick Amanda is dead, and now his second sidekick is setting up another guy. This is starting to feel seriously repetitive. Jigsaw also seems to be running out of people who need to learn lessons. The franchise started out making sense, but now he's torturing guys who are angry after losing kids to drunk drivers and cops who are too eager to help people. I wonder what Agent Strahm's going to be "guilty" of?

Saw 5 has the usual group of people forced to play Jigsaw's games, but it's also about Strahm's investigation to figure out what's up with Hoffman, who he rightfully suspects to be a Jigsaw sidekick.

Here's the victim breakdown of Saw 5: There's the guy who got cut in half by the pendulum, a blonde who gets beheaded, a guy who gets blasted with nails, a woman who gets electrocuted, a couple of people who get shredded and one guy who gets flattened.

It's hard to come into a part 5 of any franchise expecting to find something new. By this point Saw had established its fan base and all they wanted to see were more victims trying to outsmart more traps. And this is all you really get if you sit down for this one. I think the only thing slightly different that this Saw offers is the group of victims are no longer free to wander around a warehouse. They're now ushered from one room to the next and are unable to backtrack. I personally like this format better, or maybe I'm just tired of watching 4 movies with the previous format. 

Worth Watching?

If you're watching through the franchise then definitely, as a standalone movie definitely not.

Saw 5 Review (2008) Worth Watching? - ALL HORROR Tweet it