Jigsaw's Lair: Saw

Saw VI is the latest installment of the Saw series and is out this Halloween! I went to see it last night and it did not disappoint me! It has an 18 certificate here in Ireland which pleased me as I was concerned last year seeing younger people in the cinema because Saw V had a 16 certificate.If you have never heard of the Saw movies what rock have you been hiding under??? Get up off the chair and go rent the first 5 movies now and then come back to the Lair!!! OK,Seen them? Then we can begin!!

Saw 6 is directed by Kevin Greutert who makes his directorial debut here.He worked as Editor on the first 5 movies so its good that he knows about it already.It is written by Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan who wrote Saw IV and Saw V.They both wrote Feast which I liked also. Saw VI focuses on the work that Mark Hoffman is continuing on, on behalf of Jigsaw.Remember from the end of SawV, FBI agent Peter Strahm had a very (Ahem!) pressing engagement while Hoffman looked on from his glass coffin!! Poor Peter felt very crushed by the end of it!! His favourite game was Squash did you know that?? He needed R2D2 to work his magic just like he did for Luke Skywalker!! OK,OK!! Enough jokes! I am going to go into details about the movie here so be warned but suffice to say I loved Saw 6 and thoroughly recommend it to you.So if you do not want to know the full story then stop reading until you see it and then come back and comment please!!!

The movie begins straight away with a woman (Tanedra Howard pictured below who won VH1's Reality Show Scream Queens) waking up and as soon as she gets up off her chair lights come on.Unfortunately for her she is in a Jigsaw Trap!! Uh oh!! On a table in front of her are several cutting implements and she has to carve out a turkey or else!! Emmmm no she does not!! On her head is a trap that is locked on her head and big bolt screws either side of her head.She looks around and realises she is in a cage and across from her in another cage is a man.She pleads with him not to stand up but he does and his lights come on! The game has begun!! A TV flickers to life with Billy the Puppet and the familiar voice tells them the rules!! In between each cage is a weighing scales and a clock is about to count down!

The woman called Simone and man called Eddie are money lenders who give money to people who cannot pay it back so they can profit from peoples misfortune.As they look for pounds of flesh off others now they must give their own! Yes, they have to cut body parts or skin or whatever is on them and put it into the weighing scales!!! They only have a minute to do it or the bolt screws bore into their brain.Simone looks way too pretty and dainty to do it so she pauses.Meanwhile Eddie has a big fat belly so he gets going cutting into it!! He throws chunks of flesh into the scales so it tips in his favour.He is on a winner as Simone realises she is too thin to cut her belly.Let that be a lesson to Ab work!! With time running out, Simone realises she cannot win unless she does something drastic! She grabs a meat cleaver and looks at her arm! The clock ticks down so she begins hacking into it.Screaming her head off and with time running out, she hacks harder and harder until it is chopped off! She drops it into the scales just before time runs out and the scales go in her favour! The screws then bore into Eddies head and he dies! Then the credits roll.................................

Dan Erickson played by Mark Rolston is still leading up the Jigsaw Killer investigation.He was in Saw V also and is at the scene of Eddie death.He tells Hoffman played by Costas Mandylor that Peter Straham's fingerprints were found at the scene so they think he is now the new Jigsaw.This is what Hoffman wanted but then Erickson tells him that Lindsey Perez played by Athena Karkanis is still alive! Remember her from Saw IV and Saw V?? She was Straham's partner! Hoffman did not know she was still alive as she was presumed dead from the exploding Billy Doll.She was kept under wraps until Erickson believed that he could trust Hoffman with that information.Little does he know!! Erickson puts her back on the case and shakes hands with Hoffman.Later Hoffman meets Pamela Jenkins played by Samantha Lemole.She is the reporter from Saw V and is after a scoop about the Jigsaw Killer.Hoffman says he may help her as she knows things about Jigsaw already.

Now remember Saw V with Jill Tuck played by Betsy Russell opening a box left to her from John Kramer/Jigsaw?? She is his ex-wife.We see her pulling out envelopes out of the box....... Hoffman meets with her in secret and demands to take over Jigsaw's Last game.She gives him 5 envelopes and he says he will never meet her again.We cut to a health insurance executive called William Easton played by Peter Outerbridge as he goes about his dastardly deeds with his bunch of fact checkers !! They involve denying people cover based on a probability theorem he invented even if they deserve it.He denies a man named Harold played by George Newbern as he failed to declare he had a cyst in his teeth 20 years ago! So he finds loopholes to avoid giving cover! We see he denied John Kramer/Jigsaw in a flashback also.He could have saved Jigsaw!! Trap please!!! He is seen working late at night and mistakes a security man for an attacker.After shooting him he is caught from behind and wakes up in an abandoned zoo ready for Jigsaw's game! That will teach him!! Thank god for all these abandoned places that no one seems to check!! Where would Jigsaw be without them???!!!!!

When Easton wakes up he is suspended with a large clamp around his chest and a breathing apparatus over his face like an oxygen mask.Opposite him is the office Janitor played by Gerry Mendicino and he has the same set up.Billy the puppet comes up on a TV Screen and the voice of Jigsaw tells William he must get through 4 tests in 60 minutes! That's a sporting chance I'd say!! How generous!!! If he does not complete them then explosive charges attached to his arms and legs will detonate!!!

The first test is with the Janitor and William.If they take a breath then the clamps around their chest will tighten crushing them.The Janitor is a heavy smoker so whoever can hold their breath long enough will survive! They should put this video in classrooms to discourage kids from smoking!!!! It would work every time!! The Janitor valiantly holds out for as long as he can but as Easton is younger and a non smoker, the janitor takes a few breaths! He gets crushed right in front of Easton and then Easton's shackles holding him up release and he gets down.On the side of his body is a long scar so he holds his side and heads off down the path labelled kindly by Hoffman! We wouldn't want him to take a wrong turn would we??!!

Easton comes across ends of 2 chains and a sign saying to hold each end.Naturally not wanting to play the game he tries to head off down the corridor but his explosive wristband begins to beep.A nice gentle reminder to play the game! He grabs hold of each end and in front of him in a display cage Billy the Puppet shows up in a light.Easton must hang on to each end or else his young file clerk or older secretary will die.It depends on which one he lets go!! The younger file clerk has no family but his life is ahead of him whereas the older secretary has a family but she is old!! Easton has to decide! They both appeal to him not to release their chain holding them up! After hanging on as long as he can, Easton ends up releasing the chain of the younger file clerk.There's an Ad for family values if their ever was one! The poor clerk ends up being hung and flung into the clear screen directly in front of Easton.

Easton makes his way into the Zoo's boiler room where he sees Debbie the health companies Lawyer played by Caroline Cave.She has a device on her chest that is like a harpoon that will be fired up into her head and brain unless she completes a maze in 90 seconds! She is in a cage maze that Easton is on top of and he helps her by guiding her through.Unfortunately though there are steam jets blocking her progress and he has to direct it at himself each time as she gets through!! They burn his body as he deflects them!!!!! She gets through the maze but on the wall are X-Ray pictures of a key inside a body and a circular saw.She looks over at Easton and sees his scar and the both realise it's inside Easton!! Of course he is reluctant to cut up his own body so she attacks him with the saw! Dammit, you try to help a woman and that's the thanks you get!!!!!!! Women want everything always!!!!!!!!!!! Just as she gets on top of the fight as she has the saw, the time runs out and the device on her chest shoots up impaling her brain!!!!!!

The fourth test has the clip from the Carousel/Wheel of Death trailer that i posted here if you want to see it.Easton comes across a huge cage filled with his 6 fact checkers on a carousel.They are chained to it and are spinning around.When it stops a shotgun is set up in front of one unlucky person and Easton has the choice of saving only 2 people.He has to push his hand through to a button but it will drive a spike through his hand!!!!! They argue and appeal to him to save them as each comes in front of the shotgun.Each appeals his/her own way such as they know him the best,they are pregnant or they have children!!!! After a long while, Easton saves 2 people while he has to watch the others die!

As these tests are being shown there are flashbacks in between them showing how John Kramer met William Easton and Easton described his probability theorem to him.Kramer thought there was more to life than just a theorem.We see Jill Tuck in her Methadone clinic and Jigsaw saying to her that people only can be rehabilitated when they come close to death.He shows Amanda Young played by Shawnee Smith as proof of his method.She has now become clean after years of drug abuse.We see Amanda pushing around Jigsaw in a wheelchair as Hoffman sets up previous traps.Jigsaw notes that Hoffman has a brutal side and seems to like the suffering of others when he dumps an unconscious man down on the ground as he is setting him up in a trap.There seems to be tension between Amanda and Hoffman as they vie to be Jigsaw's replacement after he is gone.Jigsaw meets with Jill alone and assures her he has made plans for her well being after he is gone.He gives her the key to the Box that he will leave her later on for safe keeping as he entrusts her with his plans.In another flashback the reporter Pamela Jenkins is seen calling to Jill but Jill turns her away.Before leaving, Jenkins puts a note under the door that seems to have important information on it!

With one second left William Easton gets through the last door and finds himself between 2 cages.One has Pamela Jenkins who we now realise is his sister from a handy flashback and in the other cage is the mother and son of Harold.Remember him? He was the guy that we see Easton denying cover to at the start!!! The mother's name is Tara played by Shauna MacDonald and the son is Brent played by Devon Bostick.There is a big switch on the wall in front of Tara and Brent that says Live on one side but Die on the other!! Each cage has a big tank of Hydrofluoric acid and this final test is for the mother and son.Harold has since died from having no cover so will they spare Easton's life as his sister looks on? Tara wants to pull the lever but cannot do it! Brent on the other hand shows no mercy and pulls it to the Die position!!!!!! Racks of needles swing down and impale Easton against the cage and the Hydrofluoric acid pumps into his body.He dissolves from the inside out as his sister Pamela,Tara and Brent look on.

We go back to Erickson and Perez as they conduct their investigation.They have realised that the knife used to cut out the jigsaw piece from the body of Eddie is the same as the one that Hoffman did with the swinging Axe at the start of Saw V.They know its different from the other knives used so Hoffman is getting worried.They have the last tape that has Hoffman's voice distorted to sound like Jigsaws and they are working on it to unscramble it.Hoffman is feeling cornered as they begin to unscramble it so he leaps into action! It's all or nothing as his secret was about to be revealed!! He slices Erickson's neck with a knife and gets behind the lab technician as Perez shoots at him.The technician dies and Hoffman stabs Perez asking her who else knows about him.She says "everyone" before she dies but we do not know if she was bluffing or telling the truth!!

In yet another handy flashback we see Hoffman going in to the remains of the crushed Straham and sees his hand still hanging onto the top of the grill.He takes the hand down and keeps it in a bag.This is how he was using Straham's fingerprints at murder scenes.Now after killing Erickson and Perez, he uses it to leave fingerprints to frame Straham and then he sets fire to the room with gasoline.He returns to his observation room to watch Easton but Jill Tuck comes in and shocks him with a handheld device disabling him.The note that Pamela gave her was a copy of the letter that Hoffman sent to Amanda in Saw III.In case you are confused, it was a letter that said Hoffman knew about Amanda having a part in the robbery at Jill's clinic.That was when Amanda's drug buddy slammed the door on Jill's body killing John Kramer/Jigsaw's baby.Hoffman said in the letter that he would tell Jigsaw/John Kramer about Amanda's involvement unless she killed Lynn Denlon played by Bahar Soomekh who was Jigsaw's doctor in Saw III.I hope you are keeping up with all of this! There shall be a quiz at the end.......well no not really!!!!

Jill straps Hoffman to the chair with belts and puts a Reverse Bear Trap on his head.That's the one that opens up your jaws until they break!!! She tells Hoffman that there was another envelope in the box from John Kramer telling her to capture Hoffman as we see it in flashback.Jigsaw left the extra Reverse Bear Trap in the box which was very nice of him wasn't it??!! In classic James Bond style as lampooned in Austin Powers, Jill heads off assuming the job was well done!!!!!!!!!! Hoffman is made of stern stuff and uses the Reverse Bear Trap's weight to break his own hand as the clock ticks down! He uses the side of his head butting into his own hand! He gets out of the straps and goes to a nearby window that has horizontal bars.Ingeniously, he pushes the front of the Reverse Bear Trap into the middle of the two bars just as it springs open so it doesn't spring totally open!!! Then he pulls his head out of the trap and falls to his knees on the floor.In total pain from his ordeal and the side of his mouth torn open but still alive, Hoffman screams in agony up to the ceiling as the credits roll...........................

Saw VI was better than Saw V and it had everything! The traps were great and bloody and the story had definitely advanced on further!! If you have seen the others then I would definitely recommend it even if you have not!! Although you should see the first 5 first to follow the plot.I hope you were able to follow the story that I have outlined here and hopefully it helped you if you were wondering about something! If its Halloween, It must be Saw!! Go see this now!!

Saw VI (10/10)

*Update* For the Saw VI movie Review Click here! You may have seen these already but as you all know I love the Saw movies and this Halloween sees the return of more traps!!! I cannot wait to make my annual pilgrimage to my local cinema to see the latest installment. It amused me last time to hear women screaming their heads off and then they walked out!! They couldn't take any more of the grisly scenes!!! Maybe they expected Saw:The Disney version!!! On the poster on the left we see people on a carousel and further information on this is down below! The Game is about to come full circle! I think the Saw series has to go down as one of the best movie franchises in history. In the trailer above we see some snippets of the movie in this trailer and If its Halloween.....It must be Saw!!!

Here is a movie still that looks like something very interesting!!! This picture is taken from www.Arrowinthehead.com so check them out when you get a chance also!

Just below here we see one of Jigsaw's Traps and its a good one! 6 people on a carousel and you can save 2........but even if you can decide who......it will come at a price to you!! So Check it out and let me know what you think!!