Jigsaw: The traps come back

Released back around Halloween, Jigsaw is now available on home video. After a sizable break, the Saw series returns, bringing devious traps and deadly games back with it. Unfortunately, the return doesn't bring anything new to the table.

Jigsaw picks up a decade after the original games, with a new group of victims popping up, using Jigsaw's old methods. This leads to the police wondering if there is a copycat, or if the impossible has happened, and Jigsaw has risen from the grave. This plot is serviceable enough, and runs like every other Saw. People wake up in games, turns out they have done horrible things in their past, and their shot of redemption comes from surviving. Its fun enough, especially if you are a fan of the series, but just like most of the plots from earlier films, it falls apart when logic is brought into it. For instance, how the killer is able to know every possible outcome that someone might do, long before they do it. I know it is a controlled environment, but it really is a stretch at times. To be fair, this one is better than some with this problem though, with only a couple moments stretching logic.

Another issue, like with a lot of the later Saws, is there really are no characters to root for. It's just a line of bad people lead to the slaughter. Not being able to get behind a character really makes it hard to care if something bad happens or not. This is not to say the acting is bad. In fact, for the most part, the acting is good enough. Special mention goes to Tobin Bell, who has always been the highlight of the entire franchise, and jumps back into the role of John Kramer like there was no gap in between sequels at all.

Speaking of a sequel, this firmly falls in that category. Which is kind of an issue when you remember that this is the first one in years. Jigsaw really doesn't do much to explain what happened in the earlier films well, which is problematic if you are a new viewer. This doesn't mean having to go into the full mythos of the series, but a small refresher would have gone a long way to help ease people in.

Still, getting past all that, this is still a fun time. It is still enjoyable to guess who Jigsaw's newest apprentice is, and of course seeing how bloody the traps can get. Believe it too, that there are some great moments of gore in this movie, but it's nowhere near as over the top as some of the later Saws got. As with a lot of Saws, there is some plot twists, some of which for long time viewers may be obvious, but are still entertaining to see through to the end.

Jigsaw is a new Saw sequel. That is really the best description for it. If you are a fan of the series, you will have a good time. It is nowhere near the best of the group, but nowhere near the worst either. If you are someone who has never seen the series, go back to at least the first few to see how this all started before getting into this one. If there is a sequel to this, which of course the ending leaves as a possibility, it would be nice to see a Jigsaw 2 take some risks, and take this series in some new direction. Until then though, this will still fill that fix that used to come almost every Halloween for the better part of a decade.

2.5/ 5