SAW 5: THE STARSTORE MOVIE REVIEW
YOU WON’T BELIEVE HOW IT ENDS, cries the promotional literature and online trailers for SAW V, the latest in the massive horror franchise. No, you won’t, but not in a good way, sadly. That tagline is rather misleading as the film doesn’t actually have a real ending, so don’t get your hopes up. That said, this is a decent enough fifth entry in the series, but the premise is getting a little stretched. After the complex and engrossing fourth film, this feels a little like the makers wanted to stretch out SAW IV‘s story into another movie stuffed with flashbacks and non-linear storytelling.
SAW V is an effective horror film, but it does borrow, well, steal, liberally from various other sources. I almost leaped from my seat in the cinema and screamed foul at the screen when one major plot thread in particular began. When the five victims awaken in Jigsaw’s lair, and everything they go through afterwards, seems lifted directly from the CUBE movies. The booby trapped rooms were a great touch, but the cast of largely uninteresting characters that were stuck in the puzzles did nothing to garner any sympathy (not that they should have done). The journalist and the fire marshal were the best of the bunch, and they’re barely in it.
The non-linear plot of the film is as beautifully put together as the previous entry though, scenes within scenes playing out alongside each other, liberal flashbacks and copious amendments of established chronology. While this side to the films may aggravate the diehard gorehounds, it adds a fascinating extra dimension to those in the audience who want some story with their entrails. Tobin Bell is every bit as enigmatic as in previous entries (of course, his presence in the film is told through flashbacks), and it is a very nice touch that the Jigsaw killer messages from are audibly mixed between Bell’s voice and that of his protege Costas Mandylor (Agent Hoffman).
Of course, with fans aware that SAW 6 is on its way, there was little doubt that the climax of this film would lead into the next, but there is no big ending. The film just sort of stops in its tracks five minutes early. The franchise will need a new approach for that film, as a third attempt at the same flashbacks-and-intrigue formula will stretch things so far Jigsaw could use it in one of his traps.