Movie Review: 'Saw 5' Still Scary and Violent After All These Years

In my review of Saw 2 I said that Jigsaw wasn't immortal. I was wrong. No, he doesn’t rise from the dead but through his unending game, his work, his philosophy, and teaching, he is far from gone. As we wend our way toward Saw 6, the final in my series of Saw reviews, Saw 5 sets the table for the Jigsaw philosophy to live forever. Saw 5 is not as carefully thought out as Saw movies that came before it. It is however as suspenseful and surprising as any of the Saw movies and that goes a long way.

When last we left the Saw series Jigsaw/John Kramer (Tobin Bell) was long dead. However, more tapes and challenges exist and Jigsaw isn't done yet. Returning for Saw 5 are detective Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor), seemingly the only survivor of Saw 4. That is until FBI agent Strahm (Scott Patterson) emerges, near death, from Jigsaw’s latest home for torture. Strahm escaped an astonishing Jigsaw trap, one in which his head was locked in a box and water was quickly pouring into the box. Strahm survived by giving himself an amateur tracheotomy.

With Jigsaw dead, Strahm knows he is dealing with more than just a copycat. The tape that nearly led to his death was Jigsaw. Only a protégé could have explicit instructions from Jigsaw himself. Forced off the case by a boss who believes things ended in that disgusting warehouse, Strahm pursues the case on his own and the evidence points in an unlikely and terrifying direction: Detective Mark Hoffman.

Running parallel with Strahm's story is the story of 5 people of privilege with an unknown connection to one another. Awakened in a typical Jigsaw trap, each will be beheaded unless they can reach a box holding a key to the device strapped around their necks. A timer counts down to when the device will lock and pull each neck toward twin blades right at shoulder height.

The twist on this device? As one person pulls at their restraint, the others are tugged backwards, in the direction of the blades. There is a hint on a tape that if the 5 selfish, self involved, victims were to work together they might have a better chance of survival but if they were of that nature they likely wouldn't be here at all. The fate of these five is one of the rare disappointments of the Saw franchise. For the first time in the series the group plot doesn't tie into the main plot with the same panache. Yes, there is a connection but unlike the other movies the connection is tenuous and slightly extraneous.

Thankfully, the main plot, the battle of wits between Strahm and Hoffman, does payoff and though I wouldn't call the payoff cathartic, it is quite an entertaining and thrilling payoff with just the right Jigsaw style twist. It comes down to the choice between vengeance and redemption and which character makes the right choice comes down to the very last scene, the very last moment, with that incredibly propulsive Saw musical score amplifying the tension and suspense.

Director David Hackl, production designer on the previous three Saw films, made his directorial debut with Saw 5 and does his best work keeping the Saw history in perspective. Saw 5 goes further behind the scenes of Jigsaw's classic moments and makes sure that these new versions of things we've already seen do not conflict with the previous plots. It is a herculean effort. Saw history is a huge part of the franchise so having Hackl, someone familiar with the production aspects of the franchise was a smart choice.

Hackl has had an odd career since directing Saw 5. He went on to direct some straight to video horror and action movies, some TV shows, and in 2021 he returned to his roots as a production designer for, of all things, a Salt N Pepa TV movie. The Lifetime Television production was helmed by Mario Van Peebles and debuted to little fanfare on the network back in January. That said, Hackl has other directorial projects in the pipeline while keeping up his love of production design.

Saw 5, much like Saw 4, is lighter on the philosophy of the first three films but the filmmakers make up for the morality tales with solid thrills and gore. Saw 5 does what great horror movies do, it makes you squirm in your seat and watch the movie through your fingers as you cover your eyes. The sound design isn't quite as amped up as Saw 4 but it's not much of a sacrifice. As much as I admire Saw 4, the bone crunching sound design was perhaps a little too nauseating.

As with any franchise that reaches this many sequels, there was a drop in quality to the 5th Saw movie. However, this isn't the typically precipitous drop offs that turned sequels to Friday the 13th, Halloween or Nightmare on Elm Street into lame parodies. Saw maintained a level of dignity and popularity that allowed the franchise producers to stick to the Saw script and not wander off into nonsense territory like so many franchises before it.