Reviewed by Alicia Glass

Review Rating: 8

Warning! Spoiler Review!

Jigsaw’s legacy lives on in this latest installment of chills, thrills, kills and revelations!

Thank heavens, or whoever you want, this latest installment of the Saw series is finally, finally, a return to the way Saw was originally intended to be digested, which is to say piecemeal and with great lingering relish. (No, there’s no cannibalism.) The only sad part about it is that yes, we’ve passed the point of no return, as in unless you’re a huge Saw fan (as I am), there is absolutely no point in trying to watch 6 unless you’ve watched 1 through 5, and you might as well make a weekend of a Saw marathon anyway. That being said, Saw fans rejoice! – Things in 6 are for the most part back to the 1 and 2 films’ way of doing things: breathlessly paced, fraught with gruesome but horribly intelligent torture, Memento-style storyline splices, and a montage of explanation only at the very end.

So we have Hoffman, Jigsaw’s protégé, running around trying to stay one step ahead of the cops and run his own games regardless of what Jill Tuck or John Kramer might have wanted. Oh, did I mention that? That’s right, Jill Tuck, that immeasurably strong wife of John Kramer himself, has joined the game. Or rather, Jill begins her own endgame with Hoffman, which I found awesome. A choice for someone to carry on Jigsaw’s legacy: a violent and unraveling nut with a gun and an FBI badge, or a female doctor who runs a clinic designed to help addicts and junkies with a sociopathic husband? The intrinsic irony is fantastic, and lets face it, Jill does better than Hoffman at just about everything in this movie.

We have Tanedra Howard, winner of the VH1 reality show Scream Queens, heading off the beginning torture scene in the movie as part of her prize for winning the show – she does a pretty good job at it, and rumor has it she may return for the next movie. Peter Outerbridge stars as William Easton, head insurance claims investigator for the insurance company that denies John Kramer his chances to cure his cancer. And boy does Outerbridge do a fantastic job when faced with the impossible: choose from 2 people, choose between yourself and an unhealthy coworker, choose 2 people to live from 6 altogether, and make your choices count because those you don’t choose DIE, suddenly and violently and all over the place. Amanda comes back for a cameo, and if you know the whole Jigsaw origin storyline, Amanda’s return revelation will drop your jaw, at least it did mine. We do finally see Hoffman begin to unravel, especially when he gets stupid and tries to kill two policemen and a sound analyst, blame it posthumously on Strahm and set the whole place on fire. Idiot. And the end, oh the end, all I can say is true Saw fans, grab you Billy doll and prepare to cheer!

If you suffered through Saw IV & V and made it this far, Saw VI is worth seeing in theaters, owning to watch at home, and in general be drooled over in the most-anticipated movie fashion for some time!