JIGSAW

US, 2017, 92 minutes, Colour.
Matt Passmore, Tobin Bell, Callum Keith Rennie, Hannah Emily Anderson, Cle Bennett, Laura Vandervoort, Paul Braunstein, Mandela Van Peebles, Brittany Allen, Josiah Black.
Directed by Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig.

This is jigsaw/John Kramer resuscitated – as well as a sequel to the very popular series during the two thousands.

Credit where credit is due. The Saw series was the brainchild of Australians, Lee Whannell as writer and James Wan as director. They collaborated in various capacities in the films that followed and are now involved as Executive Producers. And, as directors, brothers working together are, Michael and Peter Spierig who made the strong vampire film, Daybreakers, the excellent science fiction time mystery, Predestination, and the forthcoming chiller, Winchester, with Helen Mirren. Australian-based.

Can they do it all again? Answer: yes. Is it any different from the former films? And some: yes and no. Is it better than the former films? Answer: probably depends on your hunger for gory sequences.

These questions are relevant only to the fans of horror films, merely points of review reference for others who wouldn’t be seen dead - or alive - watching a Saw film.

In fact, the makers of this Saw contribution, while definitely repeating the formula of the previous films: Jigsaw choosing his victims, their all being guilty of crime and having gone unpunished, transported into a torture chamber which leads to other torture chambers and their survival depending on their capacity for confessing. (Given a theological frame of mind, it did occur during the screening of Jigsaw that there was a great emphasis on sin, responsibility, sense of guilt, self-excuses, the call to repentance, the torture chambers as being 21st-century version of Purgatorio and Inferno.)

The torture sequences are very similar to those in the previous films – which led commentators over a decade ago to designate films like this as torture-porn. There is certainly a point there.

But what makes this film more sittable through is that there are a lot of sequences outside the torture rooms, even some more humane elements. There are references to war service in Iraq. There are nice family glimpses. There are police shown in some detail pursuing their investigations. There are autopsy sequences (and they are definitely very grim and grisly), a mysterious and rather imperious doctor assistant and a very genial medical examiner for the autopsies.

Another factor is that the screenplay has the victims of torture lying about their responsibilities, with some flashbacks, but with some final revelations, that indicate characters more guilty than we would have expected, diminishing our sympathy for what they have undergone.

There is a visit to a bondage centre which resembles Jigsaw’s torture chamber. There are records again with his voice and his blood under the fingernails of some victims. But he has been dead and buried for 10 years. How can this be?

There is certainly a twist at the end, possibly a twist too far, audiences trying to find some credibility as regards time sequences and the ability of the torturer to do all his work within a 24 hours day. On the plus side, Tobin Bell repeats his presence as Jigsaw/John Kramer and, while he continues to torture, he is given some very moralising lines, even some momentary human touches.

However, human touches are not the staple of this series.

1. The Saw series? Its popularity during the years of its continuance? Reviving the Saw themes again? The appeal for horror fans?

2. The past, accusations of horror-porn? The response of the fans, the film is as grim, gory, grisly? Serial killings? The scenes of torture?

3. The idea of the Star Chamber, administration of justice by vigilante authority? The targets being guilty, having escaped justice? Not escaping Jigsaw? And no mercy, no compassion? The demand for confession?

4. The religious implications, confession, repentance, atonement? The themes of torture – and echoes of purgatory, purgation, redemption? Or condemnation to hell?

5. The original films, the victims, the role of Jigsaw, the set-ups, the condemnations, the torture and deaths?

6. The screenplay opening action out? The opening chase, the men on the roof, the detonator, his being shot? The hospital locations, the laboratories for autopsies? The domestic touches? Police precincts? The bondage chamber? The farm, the countryside, the interiors? The undercutting of the sequences with the torture sequences, some kind of balance for the audience response?

7. The visuals, the grim torture? The impact of the variations of the torture, audiences identifying, the touches for nightmares? The playing of the game, for some to be saved?

8. Themes of guilt, responsibility for the deaths? Carla, her denials, the acid? Ryan, the flashbacks to his brutal behaviour, even from teenage? His fears, pleading for his life, the amputation of his leg, pulling the lever for the others? Mitch, seeming innocent, stealing the bike, the truth, Kramer’s nephew? His being crushed? Mitch and Anna in the silo, Ryan releasing the lever? Anna, surviving? Her knowing John Kramer? The label in hospital? The revelation of the truth about her baby, her anguish, framing her husband, his arrest, madness, hanging himself?

9. The torture, the effect on the victims, the possibilities for selflessness or not?

10. Logan Nelson, an agreeable personality, his work with the autopsies, his working with Eleanor? The background in Iraq, the scars on his back? The past history with Halloran? His doing the autopsies and contributing the information? The recovery of the dead man’s body and the bullet? His antagonism towards Halloran? Going with Eleanor, the bondage Museum, based on Jigsaw? Going with her to the farm, the interaction with Halloran? Halloran pushing the button for Logan to die?

11. Eleanor, tough, the Jigsaw site, the bondage and her hobby? Information, going to the farm? The contact with Keith Hunt, the police and with integrity, suspicions of the doctor, with Halloran, photographing the doctor at the bondage centre?

12. The truth, the twist? Logan’s history, Halloran and his dead wife? The revelation about Kramer, his making a mistake with the label? Tortured, confessing, helped to health by Kramer? The episodes of 10 years earlier? The re-creation? Kramer, his cancer, helping Logan? Logan becoming jigsaw? The murders, the body in the grave, shooting him as a sniper? The vengeance? The death of Halloran?

13. The credibility of the plot, time and opportunity for Logan to do all that he had planned? And how credible?