Jigsaw (2017)

I wrote fairly recently about my favourite horror movies and my twisted love affair with the Saw franchise. When the movies were still getting released, I never got the chance to share in the Halloween tradition of horror releases, because no one else I knew cared at all. And so at 9:30pm on Halloween this year, I donned a bunch of fake blood and some hastily drawn jigsaw pieces and watched a new goddamn Saw movie.

Upfront and honest: Jigsaw is not a good movie. It does not stand alone, and you will not enjoy it if you do not enjoy the movies as a whole. There was an obvious attempt made at creating an independent piece that stood apart from the seven films prior but still tied into the mythos, and while the game plan is clear, I wouldn't call it successful because it doesn't really make sense when viewed as a part of the series as a whole. As a reboot, it's just average; as a sequel (an octquel?) it's sub-par. 

Jigsaw is obsessed with creating a mythology in line with what is expected of a Saw movie. It knows fans of the originals are anticipating a ridiculous twist, so it tries to pre-empt it by making things obvious and then throwing misdirects to confuse you. Perhaps I've watched too many movies, but I picked the killer within minutes of their appearance and I thought all of the red herrings were absurd and kind of comedic. Even if you were shocked by the reveal, the absurdity of the logic behind it was baffling. No spoilers, but - why? Why did the killer literally do any of the things they did, other than to get the run around on the audience?

That's the main thing. Jigsaw desperately wants to get the run around on the audience. It could not decide between calling back to prior movies and stepping away from them. The entire main trap feels derivative of the trap in Saw V, except without a unifying incident. And yet - did Dr. Gordon decide to go on vacation? Did Cary Elwes think better of what happened in 2010? The acting is fine, but it's a bummer to have such flat characters on screen when Saw movies usually do a decent job of characterisation in spite of their absurdity. It's disconcerting to have such a lack of clear protagonist. 

If you like the absurdity of Saw movies and their bizarre chronology, you'll find plenty to question here (WHERE WAS THIS PERSON IN, LIKE, SAW IV?) in a disappointingly self-serious shell. The blood and guts are fine, but the traps aren't particularly interesting and the story feels like it's collapsing on itself and several of the performances are pretty rough. In spite of everything, I got some good laughs - not of Saw 3D magnitude, but some good one. Most notably, there's a bit where rakes start falling from the ceiling that is snuck into the trailer but is so much more ridiculous in practice that had me guffawing in the cinema. The cinematography was also miles better than previous movies, wowzers. Remember how early Saw movies looked like they'd been shot on a disposable camera? Thank god for this step up in technology (as anachronistic as it may have ended up being on a chronological level). 

Jigsaw isn't a failure on all counts, because it's watchable on the basic tenets of a Saw movie: traps, deeply flawed self-righteous morality, overly complicated explanations, "twist". It is stopped from being more than just fine, I guess, by its inability to decide between a desire to be like an early Saw movie and a late Saw movie; a full reboot and a delayed sequel. Are they trying to be loyal to the preceding movies or escape them completely? If the former, why cater so heavily to Saw fans? If the latter, why place such distance there and refuse to embrace the status? It felt halfway between, and that was confusing for me.

Rating: 4/10 - Honestly, this is a higher rating than it should get, but I just enjoy these silly movies so much. This is possibly my least favourite of the bunch (four and five were pretty weak because they hadn't fully embraced the silliness, and this was in the same region), but it is what it is.