Empire | ‘Jigsaw’ Review
Empire
From Saw (2004) to Saw 3D (2010), the ingenious, gruesome franchise owned the week-of-Halloween release date. After seven entries, the series seemed to run its course, ceding its calendar spot. But, in horror films, nothing ever stays dead. Here’s a resurrection and a reboot all in one, poised on the knife-edge between delayed last hurrah and the inauguration of a new phase. It’s a paradox that films designed to make audiences wince should become cosy with repetition, but the Saw saga trades in fairytale gothic within its hardboiled mystery frame – the tricycle-trundling puppet, the word games with splatter, Tobin Bell’s whispery sincerity, and fable-like moralities as fallible folk suffer ironic mutilation.
