Starring Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor. Written by Patrick Melton, Marcus Dunstan. Directed by David Hackl. (18A) 90 min. Opens Oct 24
The ads for Saw V proclaim that “you won’t believe how it ends.” They probably should have added that you probably won’t understand anything before the last scene anyway. Directed by the aptly named David Hackl, this purportedly final (yeah right) instalment of the most byzantinely complicated horror franchise of all time is perhaps the least coherent Saw yet — ironic, because its seeming purpose is to clarify some of the gaping plot holes that marred its predecessors.
Of course, any discussion of the film’s narrative must be subordinated to an inventory of its various Sadean deathtraps — that’s where the filmmakers’ interests lie, anyway. So: bellies are slashed, hands are crushed and emergency self-tracheotomies are improvised — that’s what amounts to relief within this kind of sadistic conception. The story that connects these cruel episodes runs along parallel tracks, with the ever-more-improbable adventures of series veteran Detective Hoffman (the ever-terrible Costas Mandylor), intercut with the rats-in-a-maze misfortunes of five kidnapped strangers trying to keep their heads (literally) after becoming the subjects of the Jigsaw killer’s latest moralistic Rube Goldberg.
What’s that, you say? You thought that Jigsaw was dead? Well, he is — guy was on his deathbed two movies ago, for goodness’ sake — but Saw V’s flashback-heavy structure gives Tobin Bell something to do while also allowing for a new actor to take on the pedagogical — serial-killer mantle. That’s why the ending of Saw V really doesn’t come as much as a surprise: even as it lingers on the images of walls closing in, it leaves the door wide open for a sequel. See you all next Halloween.