Here’s a new twist: a slasher flick with a point

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/10/2009 (6045 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

You could use a lot of adjectives to describe the Saw movies — sadistic, bloody, perversely moralistic — but up until now, "pertinent" has never been one of them.

But since the franchise has produced one movie annually since the first Saw movie was released back in 2004, it makes sense the series should now aim for timeliness.

Hence: Saw enters the American health care debate.

Though he kicked the bucket two movies ago, Saw’s gamemaster Jigsaw, a.k.a John Kramer (Tobin Bell) is still calling the shots on the mayhem, having devised an elaborate final game to be carried out by his choleric acolyte Detective Hoffman (Costas Mandylor).

This time, the designated victim is William (Peter Outerbridge), an insurance company executive with a backroom full of ruthless drones who investigate medical histories looking for reasons to deny health coverage to legitimate claimants.

Months earlier, one of those clients was John. Bad news for William. He wakes up in chains and is forced into a series of fiendish the-lady-or-the-tiger choices that, should William survive, will play hell with his ability to restaff his workplace.

Hoffman himself is the object of a different game as his fellow detective Erickson (Mark Rolston) investigates the possibility that a cop was Jigsaw’s secret accomplice.

Jigsaw’s widow Jill (’80s teen movie sex siren Betsy Russell) is drafted to get in on the retributive action with a mission of her own.

Directed by Saw V editor Kevin Greutert, the film’s plot features the usual supply of Saw fake-outs and misdirections, none of which are especially interesting or relevant. The tone of the film, as usual, turns the hysteria knob to 11 as victims hack and slash at themselves and others in a collective effort to survive.

But for what it’s worth, you can tell an editor has been temporarily put in charge of the franchise. The narrative flows a little more smoothly than usual and Greutert is refreshingly disinclined to hyper-cut the action into a baffling mishmash as per the playbook of past Saw movies.

The movie’s critique of the American insurance biz’s abuses in the field of health care is downright potent. Given the current nightly news bafflegab surrounding "the public option," Saw VI makes a lot more sense of the issue than, say, Glenn Beck.

Indeed, the movie holds the promise of a new, hitherto unseen Jigsaw disciple for next year’s planned Saw VII.

I, for one, anticipate the moment when a secret door slides open to reveal a new character at Jigsaw’s control board: Michael Moore.

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca