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Theatrical Review: Saw VI

The Jigsaw killer is still out there, with Detective Hoffman carrying out more of the final wishes of John Kramer, this time against a health insurance giant who refused Kramer on the specialized cancer treatment that he wanted to get so long ago, all the while with Hoffman now having to dodge the FBI further in their investigation of Jigsaw and also deal with Jill Tuck, Kramer’s girlfriend…

If that sounds confusing to you, well, then obviously you don’t follow the Saw franchise, now in it’s sixth iteration with the appropriately titled Saw VI, which continues to build on everything from the previous five movies and further sets things up for a seventh, much to the dismay of everyone who likes to label the series as “torture porn.” But not to mine… I love this series and look forward to every October when a new installment hits.

As I’ve said in previous reviews of the other movies, this continues to build this epic horror storyline, adding details, that fit right in to previous movies as well as setting things up further, complete with it’s grisly thrills and always with a twist thrown in by it’s end, this time with a couple that further advance this story, and here at least to me, this seems to be building to something that I could see finally concluding this in maybe another couple of installments. Do some things border on the ridiculous? Sure, but then I tend to think everything does eventually in long running series with some sort of continuity.

But as with other reviews in this series, this is purely recommended for fans of the series and not for anyone else, unless you’re a fan of extreme horror, and have never touched the series or haven’t ventured further than the first one, and then I say give them all a shot.

Costas Mandylor, Betsy Russell, Shawnee Smith and Tobin Bell are all back for this (yes, flashbacks galore) and all with good stuff that again, fits right in to everything. Mandylor in particular is impressive to me here, simply because he isn’t nearly as clever at this as what John Kramer (Tobin Bell) was, and as this storyline builds, he leaves many seams showing which Kramer wouldn’t have and which wisely the storyline picks up on.

It’s quickly paced, very inventive still in it’s deathtrap “games,” and again, I just think pure fun for the fans of the series, all else need not bother, unless of course you fit the criteria that I mentioned above…

By Darren Goodhart

Darren Goodhart is a 44-year old St. Louis-based Graphic Designer and Illustrator (and former comic book artist) who's been seeing movies all his life, but on an almost weekly basis in theatres for the last 20 years and owns nearly 1,000 DVDs for his home theatre. He's learned a lot about film over the 20 year period, and has taken his appreciation beyond the mainstream. His favorite types of film are mostly genre entertainment, but he also enjoys a wide range of drama, action and cult-y stuff from around the world, and is currently re-discovering a love affair with lower budget exploitation and genre films from the 70s and early 80s. He doesn't try to just dismiss any film, but if there's a bias against one, he'll certainly tell you that in the space of his reviews.

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