Saw V movie review

I have been waiting months and months for SAW 5 to come out. Yes I am of those crazy obsessed fans who lurks on all the SAW forums to cover every single detail, not matter how small and obscure it may be. I am a firm and delusional believer that Dr. Gordon is still alive and will make an appearance at the end (of course I thought this for 3 and 4…and then 5 so I am running low on hope). So with that said, I was going to see SAW 5 with high expectations and ready to “not believe how it ends”.

DO NOT CLICK IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN SAW V YET

SPOILER ALERT!!!




SAW V SUCKED!!! Yes, that is right I said SUCKED! All my anticipation and high hopes for the movie are somewhere at the bottom of the trash, crushed by half finished popcorn bags and overpriced sodas. My brother thinks I am overreacting. However, since he is the same brother who just recently discovered Chuck Norris jokes, so he might not be the most INFORMED person out there.

Yes, I was expecting Strahm to come out the hero or at least MAKE IT to the last movie. Now who do we have left to stop the” jigsaw killer”, Daniel and Corbett? That is an awesome team of FAIL right there. Perez was killed off screen and Erickson seems too stupid to put all the pieces together. Strahm was the only person that could really come together and give “Jigsaw” a run for his money and well, he is a pancake now.

The whole spirit of the SAW movies was smashed/crushed before our eyes. The point/philosophy John pretends to live by is to give people a chance to redeem themselves. Amanda was punished for making her games unbeatable, that she murdered her victims. Hoffman murders someone (while copying John) and he GETS to be the apprentice?! Amanda broke that rule and was killed. Hoffman broke that rule and was given complete anonymity and a free pass. He has been working since day…well, almost since day one and yet to be tested. Amanda was tortured numerous times to prove herself. Sure the tape at the end/start at SAW IV/actual end of V promised that he wouldn’t go untested, but he has had over a year of smooth sailing and no consequences. That and who is really left to test Hoffman? Jill? Give me a break. The person who has to go against “Jigsaw” has to be able to make decisions and be smart and cunning. Jill can only follow instructions. The only one left to test Hoffman is Gordon and most SAW fans refuse to believe he is alive. Unless the writers for SAW VI pull something magical out of their butts, I am not seeing how Hoffman will get properly tested.

Yes, I know that most of the cops in the series were tested for letting their “obsession” get the better of them and that might be unfair as “Jigsaw” was the one causing their obsession to grow. So I am not going to argue that Strahm should not have been tested because he was simply doing his job since everyone else was too. However, I do not think Strahm was tested in the true SAW fashion. He was meant to die in the headbox trap. To play the game, one has to know the rules. You can’t test someone without explaining how the game works. Strahm was in a death trap. I believe the pen was left accidentally, given how SHOCKED Hoffman was when Strahm was wheeled to the ambulance. So that game did not follow John’s rules; Hoffman was just trying to kill the person on to him (which is worse than what Amanda did). Strahm was then tested at the end of the movie. He was told to trust Hoffman and get in the box. Of course he doesn’t and Hoffman and Strahm duke it out. Hoffman ends up in the box, activating the walls in the room….to squish Strahm. Now…this goes in line with whether or not Jeff should have forgiven John (one could argue it was really Amanda that caused Jeff to be less forgiven. Had Amanda not shoot Lynn, he might not have killed John. But since he believed Lynn was dying anyways, what did he really have to lose?). But did Hoffman REALLY expect Strahm to trust him enough to get in a box of glass? HELL NO!!!!! He wanted Strahm to do exactly what he did; hide in the corner and Hoffman end up in the box. Strahm would be killed and Hoffman would look like he was his almost victim when Erickson arrived on the scene. Even if Strahm had gotten in the box, Hoffman had set Strahm to take the fall. Erickson was so confused at that point that Strahm might have gotten a taste of irony: innocent man killed by a police officer. Either way, the game was not winnable. Strahm does not get in the box and dies. He gets in the box and survives the closing walls, but Hoffman wanted Strahm DEAD. He was going to wait until the box was opened and killed Strahm in a different way.

Of course, Strahm did not have to get in the box. He didn’t even have to pick up the tape recorder. He might have even survived running into Erickson and trying to convince him it was all Hoffman. I am not complaining about the what ifs. I am upset that the games were once again unwinnable. Had Hoffman killed Strahm and all of a sudden we hear John’s voice saying you lose the game Hoffman and spikes fell on his head, THEN I WOULD BE HAPPY! The entire point of movie three was about following the rules and movie 5 comes along and decides to just pretend the rules did not exist!!!!

The whole 5 people trap thing was…okay. I like the larger, more complicated games. Of course, nothing can beat the suspenseful nature of the game in movie one. I wish the games would have lasted longer, but most of the tests were under 3 minutes and the 15 minute one was not as long due to other events happening. The problem I had with the group was their back story. Movie two connected the group in a very cohesive manner as did movie three (even if the group was all separated). The back story for the five test subjects made no sense at all. Well, I take that back: they all did have something in common. But I fail to see how Luba and Charles were the reason 8 people died. Charles might have eventually exposed the other t here for their hands in the cover-up and Luba is only guilty of making money after the fact. Regardless, it did not have the same impact as GASP Lynn and Jeff are married or GASP everyone was framed by Eric. The connection shocking nor did it really matter. They were all crummy people who needed to be taught a lesson apparently.

What was up with this group of test subjects?! They all might have accidentally killed people they never meet, but they had no problems killing people right in front of them. Charles acted so intelligent, yet he couldn’t realize how big the tube was? Luba killed Charles because she knew he was going to sacrifice everyone to save himself. And Brit x_X She was way too calm in the first room and for some reason picked up all the keys from the beheading test. And she stabbed Luba without a second thought! These weren’t harden criminals who were use to killing to survive! They were just slightly (or more) crocked characters who did some unethical things (except the person who actually burnt the building down). How can someone turn into a normal human being to a killer without even thinking about the possibilities?! The way they were so willing to sacrifice each other to survive made it so obvious that the final test was going to involve having all five people. Well, that and the tape said to work together (HUGE CLUE THERE) and that is how everyone could have survived in the 2nd movie. With the exception of Xavier, the house group never really tried to hurt one another. They deserved more of a chance than these new 4 new people (Ashley really doesn’t count as she didn’t have enough screen time to show her potentially selfish behavior). I really did not feel a connection with these new people so their deaths did not impact me as hard as Jeff’s or Eric’s.

I have read that some people thought the ending was AWESOME. Yeah, you think the movie is awesome because someone died in a gruesome way. That would be like saying a movie is awesome because you saw some breasts. Gruesome torturing and killings are what make a good horror movie. SAW is supposed to be better than a cheap thrill flick. It is suppose to have a comprehensive plot that you have to follow closely. Everyone CAN die at the end, but only after the twist is revealed and GASP you are the reason you are going to die. SAW V did not end that way. The ending was about murdering someone to protect their own identity and crimes. It was not SAW; it was Hoffman kills a lot of people. There was nothing epic or shocking about how the movie ended unless you count the hero dying as some awesome twist (which it isn’t). If I were to see this movie STRICTLY as a horror movie, I would be much kinder to it. However, while I cannot BELIEVE how it ended, that isn’t a good thing. Yeah, I can’t BELIEVE they ended the movie like that and if they end SAW VI like that, I won’t BELIEVE how they wasted the chance to make an incredible ending to an otherwise awesome series. SAW V is the weakest movie out of the bunch and just proves critics right when they say “what, another SAW movie?! Who cares!!!” I am a sad SAW fan with no one to cheer for in the last movie. The only way they can redeem themselves is to make Gordon the last twist and I will once again renew my faith in the SAW series. So..until next year, I am going to be pissed off.

R.I.P Peter Strahm. At least you died knowing the truth.