Review: Saw: The Final Chapter/Saw VII

While Detective-Lieutenant Costas Mandylor seeks revenge on Betsy Russell for putting him in a jigsaw trap, Sean Patrick Flanery plays a supposed survivor of Jigsaw, who now promotes his autobiographical survival story on the talk show circuit. Someone, however knows Flanery to be a fraud and decides to teach him a lesson. Cary Elwes turns up as Jigsaw survivor Dr. Gordon from the first “Saw”.

 

2010 sequel from director Kevin Greutert (who directed the awful previous “Saw VI” and the just as bad “Visions” more recently) probably won’t end up being the last in the series like it purports to be. The stupid and disappointing finale certainly doesn’t wrap the series up conclusively, so I’m not buying it. Frankly, I think the series should’ve ended with the second one, which was not only quite good, but better than the original. Some of the subsequent films have been absolutely putrid. This is the best one since “Saw II”, but it’s still not very good, probably just below the first one in terms of quality.

 

I get that the villain of the series is known as Jigsaw, but what I hate about these films is that the plot that runs throughout the series is so complicated, and even here the structure is very jigsaw-like, if you’ll pardon the pun. It’s a little too complicated for anyone but the devoted to really keep up with it all. I eventually found my bearings, but still I think it’s unnecessary. Once you do start to get a handle on it, though, I must say that the plot this time is among the more interesting of the franchise. Only just, though.

 

Some of the traps, meanwhile are among the better of the series, too. Flanery’s trap in particular is a helluva thing to see. Some, however are just disgusting on a level that it’s kind of hard to enjoy. The series really ought to have taken a leaf out of the “Final Destination” series’ book or “The Omen” in providing ‘cool’ deaths instead of sick ‘torture porn’ deaths. If you don’t understand the difference, then you definitely won’t enjoy this film. The acting is about as poor as in previous films for the most part. I’ll never understand how this franchise has managed to get so many grotesquely poor performances, some by occasionally very fine actors. Well, Danny Glover at least. He was terrible in the first “Saw”. In this outing, Costas Mandylor looks to be held at gunpoint to appear here, the completely talentless Betsy Russell is back and still hasn’t learned how to act (I’m not entirely convinced she’s actually human), and Cary Elwes returns seemingly an even worse actor than ever. Sean Patrick Flanery, however, isn’t bad. He certainly convinces as a guy who is troubled and possibly guilt-ridden. By this series’ poor standards, he probably gives one of the best performances of all. The film’s look is a vast improvement over previous films, too. The best-looking film of the lot, it’s a lot more varied with several different colour schemes instead of the piss and snot stains of previous entries.

 

If you’re a fan of the franchise, well I’m sure you saw this already back in 2010. All others probably needn’t bother. It’s not bad, but it’s a long way from being good, and the ending will leave you bummed out. The screenplay is by Marcus Dunstan & Patrick Melton (The screenwriting team behind “Feast”, “The Collector”, “Piranha 3DD”, and the last few “Saw” sequels).

 

Rating: C+