A small budget suspense/Horror film from the directors Michael & Peter Spierig well known for their films “Predestination” and “Day breakers” among a few others only. Did this movie live up to expectations of the original Saw series of films? And does it offer the viewer a modern day horror film worth the ticket price and new fans an introduction to the previous franchise and wanting more? Read my review to find all the answers.
Now I will be entirely honest here and say I have never watched any of the Saw films! I do like my horror films and especially around Halloween and this film seemed the perfect film to go see at the cinema for just that occasion. My initial thoughts before going to see the film and not having watched the trailer were, I wonder if its linked to the original series? Or is it entirely a different Suspense/Horror film? If it would be linked would I need to have seen the other films in the series? And would it be like watching a new film entirely? So a lot of questions whizzing around inside my brain.
We start with the direction which was ok and certainly on their back catalogue of films that the Spierigs have done there are more great films to come. However, sadly this is not one of them! The start of the film was very good and the first 40mins for that matter, but then it started to go downhill from there. With lots of plot twists and turns throughout sadly I read the film easily towards the last 40 minutes and knew who the main culprit was.
I have seen the same twists and scenario in another film I have watched but can’t quite remember which film it was, but definitely nothing new in the script here. The acting was ropey at times and I felt like I was watching an overly long episode of CSI! The film shoots were between the brutal honesty game that was happening between 4 people (just like the saw series and John Kramer; the man known as Jigsaw) and then back to the morgue and investigation scenes of the people turning up dead from the game. I felt like this was very rushed and the direction not up to what they can do and done in their other films, I figure the film would be a let-down for Saw fans personally and a series of films I will have to be visiting at a later date to see what all the fuss is about.
I felt though as I had not watched the previous “Saw” films that the film was self-explanatory and I never found myself wishing I hadn’t missed out by not watching the originals before going to see this. The effects were good in the film and its worth mentioning the stand out performance acting for me was Hannah Emily Anderson who played the forensic pathologist Eleanor Bonneville – she showed excellent acting ability and played her character very well indeed. She is an up and coming actress so hopefully she will get the chance to appear in a bigger movie so she can shine more, certainly one to look out for in the future folks.
The film score by “Charlie Clouser” was brilliantly awesome and I see he did the original Saw film score also so no big surprise here! Overall for me not the best film and more negatives then positives here. I felt very let down after exiting the cinema and thought to myself the script could have been so much better and the plot for that matter, it just did not excite me or offer any real suspense for me. It could have been a great film and set the benchmark for a whole new spinoff series of films with an old and new fan base, but it definitely does disappoint on every level.
Author: Paul, York store
