Jigsaw (2017)

 

Genre: Horror/ Thriller

Time: 1h 32mins

Directors:  Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig

Quick Summary: Bodies are turning up around the city, each having met a uniquely gruesome demise. As the investigation proceeds, evidence points to one suspect: John Kramer, the man known as Jigsaw, who has been dead for over 10 years.

Why did they even make this? This is very obviously a cash-in.

The people in this game are so selfish and stupid and just absolutely useless. They learn nothing from their games and that was shown right at the very end. It was like each time a trap was shown, they either turned their brains off or were too much of a coward to do anything. Like boo hoo, you're a horrible person now suffer, please. 

The traps weren't even that great in this either, they were pretty boring. In retrospect, they're pretty mild compared to others we have seen too. The gore was completely dialled back as well. 

I did like the addition of the (who I won't name for fun of it) "Jigsaw enthusiast." I thought it was a fun thing to add and to show the extremity of their hobby of collecting Jigsaw traps was really cool to see. Even if the character was kind of boring, it was a fun addition. 

Speaking of dialling back, the twist. Haven't we had this one already? Like more than once? This brings no originality or creativity. Whoever wrote this story should go back to school or just stop because this was painful to sit through. The pacing is dreadful, as we're constantly flicking backwards and forwards between two groups of people and we barely have any time with either of them. 

Honestly, I didn't even enjoy the acting, everyone felt so wooden and I gained no emotional connection to anyone, so really I didn't care when people died. They deserved it at times for being so stupid, like yeah sure go for the door that says not an exit, nothing will happen I'm sure. 

My problem with this film is that it explains its twist by talking about something that okay, could reasonably happen. EXPECT it isn't mentioned or even hinted at in any other film at all. All of the previous films make sense because logically they could fit in, or be explained by other events. There is no logic to this one. 

I think if you like the Saw series and honestly just want to turn your brain off, then maybe you'll like this. Or if you want to watch people just be incredibly self-centred and useless, give this a go. At least this looks a bit gritty and dark.

4/10

"Here's your key to freedom."