Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1228 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-03-09
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 88 minutes

Synopsis
Continuing on with its story despite the death of namesake killer Jigsaw in the third installment, SAW V concerns itself with detailing who will carry on with his bloody work. Director David Hackl, the production designer on the previous three films, retains their familiar charnel house look. Though there are fewer grisly death sequences, faithful viewers will enjoy the creative plot twists. The film opens with a man strapped to a table above a pendulum. As the sharp blade begins swinging over his stomach, he has only a minute to stop it by inserting his hands into a device that will crush them. When the machine malfunctions, it's clear that it wasn't the work of the meticulous Jigsaw. Meanwhile, FBI Agent Strahm (Scott Patterson) continues the investigation he began in the previous film, only to wake up to find himself wearing a glass helmet filled with water. With a minimum of self-mutilation, he escapes and continues his investigation with the hunch that Detective Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) is somehow involved in the new rash of killings. Before long, a new group of strangers wakes up in Jigsaw's lair to face a series of brutal tests, and Jigsaw's ex-wife, Jill, is given a mysterious box at the execution of his will.


An enormously popular and critic-proof series, SAW gives its fans what they want--creatively executed blood and guts. The fifth instalment in as many years, SAW V is more subdued in that department, but the sequences it does contain deliver the goods. Several lengthy flashbacks also allow Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) to make a few appearances. While SAW V isn't the place for beginners to start, those who have stuck with the story this far will find it a fitting entry, happy that SAW VI is just around the bend.

Customer Reviews

could have been better, but does not disappoint...
I am admittedly a fairly avid Saw fan and was really looking forward to this movie after being slightly disappointed with the crappy-edited fourth. I have to say though, that this didn't disappoint and was a huge improvement. If you haven't fully understood Saw 3 and 4 you will never get this movie enough to enjoy it - like the other films it is confusing and moves about in time rather than running in linear fashion. It took me 2 or 3 times to see Saw IV and realise that almost the whole film (barring the autopsy) takes place at the same 'time' as Saw III, which is significant to this film as near the beginning we learn the fate of Corbett, the daughter of Jeff and Lynn.

I have seen this movie a few times already, and the story carries on from the fourth, with Agent Strahm locked in a room. He finds a secret doorway and plays a tape that tells him not to enter, but being obsessed with uncovering the truth he does and wakes up in a trap. He barely survives the trap, but is the only one alive that suspects Hoffman is a guilty apprentice. He gets taken off the case by the FBI after numerous bodies are found at the scene, but he revisits other crime scenes in the hope of exposing Hoffman. We see flashbacks of how Hoffman gets acquainted, and blackmailed by Jigsaw, after Hoffman murders his sister's killer trying to make it look like a jigsaw trap.

Meanwhile, five people who are unknowingly guilty (or close) of killing 8 people in a building-fire wake up in an underground sewer, forced to be tested through five rooms as "five become one". The weaker side of the storyline admmitedly, as the characters do not have a strong enough connection to the plot.

Hoffman though has his own plans to frame Strahm for the jigsaw traps and kill him off. Jigsaw leaves a box in his will to his ex-wife Jill Tuck, who also tries to frame Strahm telling the FBI he has been following her. I would personally say the ending is excellent and unexpected - it surprised me.


My advice would be not to listen to the bad coverage around Saw V and go and see it for yourselves - if you have seen the other 4 you don't know what you are missing.

Same time next year?
The taglines for Saw usually indicate what to expect. The moniker of Saw 3:
"Suffering....you haven't seen anything yet" perfectly summarised the goriest, most disturbing instalment to date. Saw V's quote:
"In the end all the pieces will fit together" isn't as relevant. The pieces are a partial fit, but the `final' film is quite underwhelming. Simply put, Saw V should feel more climatic. It would be easy to blame new director David Hackl, but his role as production designer on parts 2-4 means he was a fairly logical choice.

Tobin Bell's role as Jigsaw steals the show once again. The small matter of his death meant an origins story in Part IV. Here, the flashbacks concern Detective Hoffman, and how he was converted. The story is interesting, and explains certain plot gaps. Like how Detective Tapp found Dr. Lawrence Gordon's penlight; and how the fat man in the razor trap was captured.
However, more often it convolutes the story and confuses the timeline of events. Apparently, Hoffman has been involved in almost every game, which is achieved by inserting a section into an old scene. For example, Hoffman leaves a room just before Amanda enters. It feels a little clumsy, and would have worked better by including new sections, spent developing these characters. At one point Hoffman says:
"Amanda will fail you", indicating he doesn't trust her. This aspect should have been explored, including the tensions created by these wildly different accomplices. In fact Shawnee Smith, who plays Amanda, barely features. Was this intentional or a contractual matter?

The heavy use of flashbacks highlight the lack of new ideas, including trap designs. The Pendulum is suitably graphic, and the Coffin trap is horrendous. But the rest are pretty uninspired and feel like retreads. The `game' is a group task similar to Saw 2, with the theme '5 become 1'. The participants are linked by privileges they were given from birth, which have been used selfishly. These sections keep the gore count high, but is poorly linked to the overall plot. However its the only segment that doesen't require an encyclopaedic knowledge of events so far.

The final twist is also anticlimactic. By no means poor, but not the brain melting quality of previous films. Jill Tuck plays a pivotal role in events, although this isn't fully explained.
With a videogame in development, and a few loose ends, part VI is entirely possible. They should probably stop it now, and keep from ruining this franchise any further. Yet it remains leagues ahead of other modern horrors.

one step foward, two steps back
Spoilers if you have not seen Saw 4

Picking up exactly where Saw 4 left off, we find agent Strahm trapped inside Jigsaw's final resting place, discovering a secret passage he heads off but is incapacitated by Jigsaw's new apprentice detective Hoffman. Strahm is placed in a trap but survives and becomes obsessed with hunting down the apprentice focusing all his attention on Hoffman. Meanwhile five people wake up as the latest victims in Jigsaw's games, with the clock counting down against them they desperately try to survive to the end whilst uncovering a connection they all share.

The fifth entry into the franchise is pretty good but the Saw films have strictly become a fans only affair unlike other horror franchises anyone trying to enter in at this stage will be utterly lost, saying that when comparing Saw V to other fifth-quels in horror series it can hold it's head up high having not fallen into the cheesy campiness of say Nightmare or Friday the 13th franchises.

The major problem with this sequel is the story is too obsessed with the past. While its interesting to uncover what motivates certain characters far too much time is spent in the past, much of it filler, at the expense of furthering the present day story. Case in point, intricate detail is shown in how the barb wire trap in the first Saw was set up, from planning, kidnapping the victim, placing him in the trap, as well as the secret viewpoint it was observed from. It's totally unwarranted. In the first saw the scene was roughly 30 seconds long and wasn't integral to the story at all and neither is it here, yet its examined in meticulous detail but serves little purpose like many of the flashbacks featured in the film. Positively the first meeting between Hoffman and Jigsaw is shown which is well written and acted giving a glimpse into the relationship between the two, likewise Hoffman's motivations are exposed and these scenes prove worthwhile.

The deaths by pendulum trap at the beginning, the trap at the very end and the contraption forcing the victims to mutilate their arms will delight the gore fans proving viscerally violent. However the other deaths aren't particularly memorable or that gory.

The present day story of Strahm investigating Hoffman is quite limp as it's just Strahm going through files and doesn't pick up any momentum until the last 10 minutes. The latest game taking place is entertaining and it's enjoyable to see a team aspect reminiscent of Saw 2 rather than people just screaming by themselves. The link that ties the two current day story threads together is also pretty thin.

As for the final twist with the poster tag lines running 'you wont believe how it ends' well you will. It's simply a case of 'oh that's it?' there's nothing particularity wrong with it but when compared to the twists earlier in the franchise it doesn't stand in comparison.

All in all it's a worthwhile addition to the franchise but at times is simply gets too bogged down in it's past with too little focus on it's future. If you've enjoyed all the saw films to date you'll enjoy this. Roll on Saw 6