Hello reader, I want to play a game. Right now, you are feeling curious, you’re maybe thinking about watching a horror sequel but you don’t know whether to take a risk on part V of a series which started strong and has got progressively weaker each time out.

Some would call this karma, I call it justice. Now you find yourself chained to a table, there is a machine rigged to bestow unthinkable torture upon your eyeballs before you, but it has a switch, the switch is your chance to salvation and it’s called the ‘off’ switch.

Part V of the torture porn franchise sees David Hackl (previously second-unit director on the last two Saw films) getting his shot to blaze a new trail, well okay not ‘new’ maybe but at least offer some sort of continuation. Erm, so here’s nut-job trap master Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) back on the block despite having died in the last film – or the one before but as comebacks go, this is one of those convoluted ‘flashback’ efforts.

Picking up moments after the mildly ho-hum climatic events of part IV, Detective Mark Hoffman (Costas ‘Beowulf’ Mandylor), is given the job of taking on the Jigsaw mantel by devising more gruesome live or die (and probably get mutilated in slow motion anyway) traps where those who have transgressed face their demons.

Also back from part IV is Agent Strahm (Scott ‘Will & Grace’ Patterson) who managed to escape a Jigsaw trap by performing a self tracheotomy and has a bit of a personal grudge against the evil legacy of Mr Saw.

But a saw film wouldn’t be a saw film without a seemingly random bunch of strangers rigged up to freaky series of booby traps – a la Saw II. Do they have some hidden connection and more importantly, does anybody care?

It all looks dungeon grim slick with the usual greenish shadowy palate of saturated colours and the DVD transfer is great quality. Extras on offer really add to the experience with Audio Commentaries from director Hackl and first assistant director Steve Webb who are obviously obsessive about their film. Plus there’s another one from the producers who discuss finer plot points and even drop hints at the promised Saw VI.

There are short features called The Pendulum Trap, The Cube Trap, The Coffin Trap and the Fatal Five which detail the devious death bringing creations / films’ main selling points – the traps themselves. There’s the trailer too.

So overall Saw V does an ok job of keeping the series trucking along, sure it’s lost some of the evil sparkle that made the first one such a classic but for fans you probably won’t be able to resist this extra slice of malevolent jiggery-pokery.

VERDICT:

The strapline read ‘You won’t believe how it ends’ and seeing as the series hasn’t finished yet, this is still technically true because you won’t actually find out until part VI at least!?

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