The Super Network

4.5/5

*Disclaimer* If you haven’t seen the other Saw films the following review will spoil those films, there is no possible way to review this without doing so.

Saw VII apparently brings the series to a conclusion, and you know what I hope this is the last one. I love the series, this has been the horror franchise of the naughties and all good things must come to an end. Saw VII played that card, and this conclusion, this final chapter worked perfectly. This one not only concludes the story, but it does go back to the beginning and giving us even more insight. It wraps up as many loose ends as possible, and for me this was more than a satisfactory ending, in fact this is the ending I was predicting and hoping for. This film continues off well where the first film ended, and we finally see what happened to Dr Gordon (Cary Elwes) after he left that room. Soon enough we find ourselves with a very public trap, involving a threesome gone wrong. We then find ourselves with yet another trap, and the cops are on the scene to investigate. On the other side we see what happened to Det. Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) after Jill Tuck (Betsy Russell) put the reverse bear trap on him at the end of Saw VI. That isn’t enough to stop him, as he goes right back to work and she goes right to Internal Affairs. Meanwhile we see that a ‘Jigsaw’ survivor Bobby Dagen (Sean Patrick Flannery) has written a book on his ordeal and is trying to help other survivors. It isn’t long before his own game of survival begins, and we see how he relates to John Kramer. The battle is on for not only survival but for ‘Jigsaw’s legacy.

This film did have a lot going on, and I really liked that. We had some interesting traps to start off the film, and especially with the one involving the skin heads, had a meaning behind it. Answers to questions from other films get revealed, slowly as the film progresses. And the awesome thing here, it all made sense too. I can’t imagine I’d find many plot holes if I watch all 7 films back to back. I was giddy as a school girl seeing Dr. Gordon, he has not been seen since the first film and it was never revealed what actually happened to him. Then we have Det. Hoffman, being put into that trap at the end of the last film and seeing the results was gruesome and some how just so damn cool. There is some strange appeal about that character, I just can’t quite put my finger on it. Jill is of course back, and from the last film I felt that she had an agenda and there was more going on than we got to see (And there is). The investigation by the cops, helmed by IA man Gibson (Chad Donella), seems to be leading them to Hoffman but there is so much more going on. This is one puzzle that has a lot of pieces, and if you pay attention you will work it out. The central trap involving Dagen was quite brutal, and he has some nasty tests to over come involving other people in his life.

The acting in this was for the most part great stuff, Costas Mandylor owns as Hoffman big time. He was just so great, even though I probably shouldn’t have been in his corner I was for a lot of his time with all the films. He has this amazing charisma, and there is just something about him, I can’t help but like the guy. Betsy Russell was great again as Jill, I like her character and she has been a great addition to the series. Tobin Bell had a much smaller role here, which makes sense considering his character did die four films ago. He’s mainly here to provide motive for Dagen’s trap and to explain a few other things which I can’t reveal. What else is there to say? He’s an amazing actor and this is his role and his legacy, without him I doubt John Kramer would have been a memorable character. Sean Patrick Flannery was pretty good, I didn’t mind him at all. He really played it well when he was in the game, it was intense and brutal and that was when he was at his best. Gina Holden as his wife was alright as well, she did some good screaming! I guess the weak part in the acting pool was Chad Donella, not that he’s a bad actor but he was just so on and off for the film. At times he was good, other times he just came off really bad and it was laughable. Cary Elwes picked up where he left off, I can’t help but just love the guy.

This film boasts some unique and quite brutal traps, and it felt like they were designed specifically to freak me out. While the traps in the other films didn’t freak me out or gross me out too much, these ones did. They really played to my own fears and sensitivities, I was squirming in my seat, and I actually had to look away for one of the traps. The meaning behind the traps set in the main game were actually pretty smart and each had their own thing. The sets were great, while they were elaborate, it was good stuff to look at and all the more affective with the 3-D. Which brings me to the 3-D gimmick, they certainly designed a lot of things for 3-D, and it worked perfectly. Seeing as they filmed this one with the 3-D technology, and didn’t go for the post production conversion, they had the smarts to take advantage of the horror of the traps. It was beautiful to look at, crystal clear, it wasn’t blurry and it didn’t give me a headache. It was quite awesome to see this in 3-D, while I don’t think every film needs to be, something like this just really works.

I enjoyed this film a lot, it was well made, smart and it felt designed just for me. This is easily the best film since the first one, maybe it’s because everything just came together so well, it didn’t feel forced and it still had a fresh feel about it. It was fun as well, and some of the characters have now come along full circle, it was easy to invest in them. This film had everything that fans have come to love about the series and I felt it ended on the right note. I couldn’t have asked for a better film, I just really loved this one so much. Highly recommended, see it on the big screen while you can and definitely shell out for 3-D!