“Alright, I’m through the first 8, ready for part 10.
Part 9 being Spiral, which, No.
It turns out I HAD seen all 8 parts. I was pretty sure I’d skipped one in there somewhere, but no, all 8, just some were a bit forgettable.
There is some good in this movie in that they stopped going back to the plotline of movies 1-3 and did a mostly-new thing (or, at least, a plot that doesn’t require flashbacks to the first 3 movies).
And that’s about it.
Jigsaw taking on an apprentice is not a terrible idea. But we saw that in 3. And it renders parts 4-7 nonsensical, because where has this protege been the whole time?
Moving the location to a barn instead of having another disgusting warehouse is a misstep. The sepia sunshine of the barn is a lot less terrifying, and I’ll tell you why because it dovetails with what has made the Saw franchise less scary all the time:
In a gross, windowless room, you could be anywhere. Which means this room could exist just up the road from you, almost no matter where you live. In a barn, you’re not anywhere.
The dovetail is in the victims. Previously, Jigsaw was killing people who did not value their own lives, in his opinion, the idea being that he wasn’t going to live his life, and he resented people who were going to get theirs and didn’t seem to care.
As the series moved on, though, the killings turned into revenge killings, killings of people who had done bad things.
And that’s less scary, too, because, well, I haven’t killed a baby or joined a neo-Nazi group or whatever, so I don’t have to wonder.
Meanwhile, when people were getting killed for nonsense like doing drugs or having an eating disorder, you DID have to wonder. I’m certainly not taking a big ol’ bite of the apple that is life each and every day, so maybe I’m next!
This personalization of the victims killed the vibes.”