I watched the first three Saw films and enjoyed them fully. Now they weren’t the best movies ever, but they were an enjoyable, yet gruesome way to spend the 90 minutes or so that each one takes to watch. I naturally assumed that the films would end after Jigsaw died at the end of Saw III, but they continued on with Saw IV. I personally chose to skip Saw IV due to that fact. Last year they made their way to Saw V and it is out on DVD on Jan. 20th.
Saw V is less of a horror film, and more of a detective thriller with some incredibly violent and/or disturbing sequences. This time around we are following Agent Strahm, and Detective Hoffman throughout the film as Strahm works to solve the murders that are the lynch pin of all of the films in the series. The traps are more dangerous this time around, within the film, and even in the filming for the actors. The movie opens with a classic pendulum trap which was mostly made of steel, except for the blade. The most immediate danger was actually a trap which most of the advertising was centered around. It was a trap where the person’s head is left in a steel and glass box that fills with water. In this one the actor could die if one tiny thing went wrong. The film also has a group of five people going through one of Jigsaw’s signature games with a series of traps designed to test and teach the group going through them.
The disc contains many features, more than is expected on a one disc edition these days. It has two commentaries. One is with the director and first assistant director, and the other is with the producers and executive producers. Each commentary is very informative about the film, and discusses things dealing with how the film relates to the rest of the franchise. They have a making of for each trap: the pendulum trap, the cube trap, the coffin trap, and one on the five-to-one game/trap. They have a feature on the editing of the cube trap scene. The trailer is also on the DVD for the film.
The transfer is as clean as you’d expect, and is in the prerequisite 16:9 ratio for most everyone’s TVs these days. The sound is in the usual Dolby Digital that we assume is on every disc.
As I have stated earlier, I chose to skip Saw IV. The main character for the series had died, and really looked to have forced an ending to the whole deal. Once they had announced that they were going on with the series I thought that it was a dumb idea that would produce laughable sequels. After watching Saw V I realized that they had actually managed to continue it in a very interesting way, and regretted my decision to skip the previous movie. Saw V isn’t as gruesome as the last installments, only through the fact that there are less traps than usual. The filmmakers decided to really focus on the story line of the series more than the predecessors. The story of Agent Strahm investigating the Jigsaw murders really drew me into the film more than the usual mostly trap based plots that had a storyline work through them. I was kept watching by wanting to know where Strahm was going, and where it was going to lead him. I enjoyed Saw V quite a bit.
I really would only recommend this film to fans of the series, or people who watch horror films. This film, as it is with the other movies of the Saw franchise, is not for the squeamish or people who are easily bothered by this sort of movie. This one will give those kinds of people nightmares. These traps are gruesome, and the aftermath is quite graphic, as we get to see all of it. So be careful who you watch this with, or if you even watch it it’s still just as disturbing as the rest of the franchise.
Comics Online gives Saw V 3 out of 5 Jigsaw standard traps.
