Jigsaw is back. Or is he?!
In this story, a series of odd murders begin to take place across the city which seemingly exhibit the same patterns as those of John Kramer (Tobin Bell), the man known as Jigsaw. The problem law enforcement face is that their main suspect has been dead for years. Their knowledge and beliefs are challenged when more fresh corpses appear with John’s DNA all over them.
Jigsaw generates a sense of nostalgia for fans of the Saw series though it doesn’t fully reach the same impact the original movies had. Putting that aside, Jigsaw is a solid reboot which has the ability to be a stand-alone film – it helps to have seen the originals but it’s not necessary.
The writers (Pete Goldfinger and Josh Stolberg) stick to the original formula by trying to keep audiences guessing throughout the story, while this partially works, they seem to have underestimated their target audience. Saw fans are used to looking at clues to figure out the twists in the story, as a result, one of the major plot twist is frustratingly obvious early on in the film. On the plus side, the surprise involving Jigsaw is quite well done and might be unexpected to most people.
Surprisingly, the gore element in Jigsaw is rather tame, it has its moments but overall the gore is lacking somewhat compared to what fans are used to. Most blood filled scenes weren’t met with disgust and horror from the audience at the premiere. In a time where horror fans are very hard to shock, one would have expected the writers and directors (The Spierig Brothers) to push the gore boundaries further in a reboot of a series that helped define “torture porn”.
One of the best and underrated part of the film is the involvement of Charlie Clouser, whose heavy and violent sounding score is unmistakable and adds another level of menace to the story of Jigsaw.
With its toned down gore and lukewarm twists, Jigsaw is still a fun film with lots of entertaining bloody games fans have come to love and expect. There is not much character development in the plot, but let’s face it, one has to be pretty silly to go to a “torture porn” movie and expect character development from anyone else other than Jigsaw. This factor works in favour of the film because it leaves a few questions up in the air as the end credits start to roll, but one thing becomes very clear, a sequel is on its way.
Jigsaw is the kind of movie most movie critics love to hate but fans enjoy. I rate it 6/10.
Jigsaw is in cinemas now, you can also take a listen to our interview with the directors of the film here.
