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Note: This is a spoiler review, if you do not want to know what happens then click off.

Jigsaw is the eighth installment in the Saw series, and is directed by Michael and Peter Spierig. When compared to the other films in the series it falls very short,and it becomes apparent that the reason it was made was to cash in on everyone’s nostalgia. Yes this movie gives you a “Saw” experience. It gives you creative traps, an alright plot twist and we get the classic song in the movie, but that’s it. 

The story is slightly interesting at some parts. We start off with a police chase that leads to the suspect being cornered. He then proceeded to pull out a device and yells that “the game has began,” then he gets shot from a mysterious source. This then leads to the five victims (Anne, Ryan, Mitch, Carly and the fifth one is unknown) in Jigsaw’s trap. They are told in order to proceed through the traps they must “repent for their sins.” The five diminish one by one through out each “game.” While this is all going on, we are shown the police investigating Jigsaw’s return. This part of the story follows two detectives (detectives Keith and Halloran) and two doctors (Logan and Eleanor). In their investigation they suspect the two doctors for the supposed Jigsaw murders. Back with the people going through the game it eventually leads to Anne and Ryan who come face to face with John Kramer (the original Jigsaw) who is thought to be dead throughout the whole movie. Eventually Anne and Ryan die due to them not being able to figure out Jigsaw’s riddles. After all that we are shown the two doctors Logan, Eleanor and Detective Halloran arriving at the location where the “games” were played throughout the movie, only to find that the entire “game” that we followed through the whole movie happened ten years prior and that all the new murders were set up by one of the doctors (Logan). We also find out that the fifth survivor that we never met at the beginning of the “game” was Logan and was taken in as Jigsaw’s apprentice. In the end Logan takes up the Jigsaw mantle.
Besides the plot twist at the end of the film I found it hard to pay attention and often found myself thinking about how they could fix the scene. They attempted to make the story more interesting by throwing John Kramer in making it seem like he was alive, but other than his reveal he had little to no screen time therefore making it very lackluster. At times it even felt like you could predict that he was not alive. I personally felt like the story would have been better if they found some strange way to bring him back to life. The story just felt so rushed and didn’t pull me in.

The characters were another area in the film where it seems to come short. Besides Tobin Bell’s performance as John Kramer and Matt Passmore as Logan I found it hard to remember any of the characters, even causing me to look up character names because I honestly couldn’t remember them. There was little to no attempt to make any of the characters memorable. The acting is also a flaw. Most of these actors were not A-list actors and I now see why. The conversations were obviously scripted and had little to no emotion.   

Now it’s a Saw movie so how were the traps? Honestly they were creative, and some were very interesting, but none made my skin crawl like previous movies made me feel. Speaking of previous movies we are give a scene where we see a few traps from the previous movies like the iconic “reverse bear-trap.” 

Now me being a big Saw fan I did enjoy seeing the movie again for nostalgic purposes, but other than that the movie was not good. If you want to see a horror movie this Halloween I would recommend seeing another or watch the first Saw movie on Netflix. I’d give this movie a 3/10.

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