Jigsaw returns again once more

SAW VI (**) - Starring Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, Betsy Russell, Mark Rolston, Peter Outerbridge, Shawnee Smith, Samantha Lemole, George Newbern and Darius McCrary.
Directed by Kevin Greutart.

Finally, a slasher flick that could be played at the next DNC convention. The opening sequence pits two bankers - aka "predatory lenders" - against each other where only one can live. Then the main story features the president of a health insurance company who proudly finds excuses to ditch clients once they have actual health problems. Unfortunately for him, one client he ditched was John "Jigsaw" Kramer. Even though Jigsaw died three movies ago, his disease is spreading.

The first Saw movie was a good freaky little hardcore horror flick with a cool twist ending. The Saw movies have evolved, not even trying to be scary, just gory, with victims we don't really care about, and each movie provides flashbacks to show how everything is connected, as though the whole thing has been one giant master plan by Jigsaw this whole time. This movie had a better twist ending than Saw V, but it was tedious in the middle and weirdly preachy, since Jigsaw started breaking his own rules a couple movies ago.

When we get through Saw I and II, we see that Jigsaw had a code. He never killed anyone. He just set them up to die if they chose wrongly, but somewhere back there he started creating traps where it's impossible for all involved to get out alive. Here the most egregious departures are set up, where at least seven people will die regardless of the actions of anyone. It's just a matter of which seven. And needless to say, more than seven people are dead by the end of this. But that's okay, because of bankers and insurance employees, they all deserve to die. And that janitor. Oh, but he smoked, so he deserved to die.

But Jigsaw's work is now being carried out by Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) as we learned in Saw IV's twist ending, and Hoffman is taking a little too much enjoyment in the suffering of others. Not to mention the police are getting closer to figuring out who might really be behind the continued killings.

The producers have already announced that Saw VIII will be the final chapter. I wonder how money they plan to throw at Cary Elwes to return as Dr. Gordon, the man who had to cut off his foot in the first Saw.