Sawstravaganza! Saw 5: Jigsaw's Dinner Party (2008) Review

Alrighty, here we go. Saw 5 is the final nail in the coffin of the series, ultimately showing everyone that there was nothing else that this franchise had to offer........that is, until next year when Saw 6 came out and people were both not surprised and pleasantly surprised at the same time. But we'll touch more on that tomorrow. This is Saw 5.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

Instead of doing an intro, I'm just gonna jump right into explaining the plot of this movie, because unlike the other movies, this one is extremely simple. 

After the events of Saw 4, Hoffman is known to be the new Jigsaw killer. When Strahm gets locked in the meat factory's sick room with the corpses of Jeff, Lynn, Amanda, and John Kramer, he finds a secret door and a recorder. The recorder tells him not to go into the door, but he does anyway and then he gets attacked by a masked man and knocked out. When he comes to, Strahm finds himself in the main trap of the movie, the Water Cube. The Water Cube was used in a lot of the advertisements for Saw V, and for good reason; it's one of the most creative traps in the whole series. It's so simple, yet so sadistic. I'll let you see for yourself how he manages to get himself out of it:

Here's how the rest of the movie goes: Strahm tries to chase down Hoffman because he knows that he's the killer, Jill receives an inheritance and last will from John's lawyer, and 5 people are involved in the movie's main plot point, a huge Jigsaw game revolving around the 5 of them working as a team to overcome the traps. 

So THAT'S why it's called Saw 5!

A bit of Hoffman's backstory is explained. Also, Strahm dies in the end by one of Hoffman's traps. That's it. That's the whole movie. In this movie, the five people in the big game kind of take a side role. I was really surprised when they decided to make the main focus on Hoffman trying to outwit Strahm. While it was senseless cop drama, I still kind of liked it. But not a lot. 

That being said, the five people in the big game is a good plot too. In the end, they kill off 3 of each other in the traps and at the final test, they learn that it requires all five of them to complete and if they had worked together in the previous games, they all would have survived. It's a pretty nice touch. Anyway, that's Saw 5.

SPOILERS CONCLUDED!

I hope you guys don't feel ripped off with this review, because there's really not much that I can say about this movie. The plot is just so simple, and while that's not necessarily a bad thing, it definitely doesn't help the movie at all. As before, not an ounce of good acting to be seen here. Not gonna waste my time on that aspect. The traps are pretty decent, much better than Saw 4's (then again, everything about this movie is better than Saw 4). A guy gets sliced in half by a pendulum, a girl gets decapitated, a guy gets blown up by nail bombs, a girl gets stabbed then electrocuted, two people get their arms sawed in half, and a guy gets crushed between two closing walls. The gore is really good, but the blood effects leave a lot to be desired. 

Overall, Saw 5 is still the second worst film in the series in my eyes because of it's ridiculously simple plot that doesn't contribute anything to the story at all. I give it 4 emergency pen tracheotomies out of a possible 10. At least it can say it's not as bad as Saw 4.

DAMN YOU, JAMES WAAAAAAAAN!