Saw V

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Saw V
Saw V Promotional Poster
Directed by	David Hackl
Produced by	Mark Burg Oren Koules
Written by	Patrick Melton Marcus Dunstan
Starring	Tobin Bell Julie Benz Meagan Good Costas Mandylor Scott Patterson Betsy Russell
Music by	Charlie Clouser
Cinematography	David Armstrong
Editing by	Kevin Greutert
Distributed by	Lions Gate
Release date(s)	Australia: October 23, 2008 North America: October 24, 2008 United Kingdom: October 24, 2008 New Zealand: October 30, 2008
Running time	92 min.[1]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$10,800,000
Gross revenue	$113,857,533[2]
Preceded by	Saw IV (2007)
Followed by	Saw VI (2009)

Saw V is a 2008 horror film directed by David Hackl and written by Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan and stars Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor and Scott Patterson. The film, the fifth installment in the Saw franchise, was released on October 23, 2008 in Australia, October 24 in North America and the United Kingdom, and October 30 in New Zealand.

David Hackl, who served as the production designer of Saw II, III, and IV, and second-unit director for Saw III and IV made his directorial debut with 'Saw V.^[3] Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, the writers of the previous film, returned to write the film. Charlie Clouser, who provided the score for all previous Saw films, also returned to compose the score for the film.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Development 4 Release 4.1 Box office performance 4.2 Critical reception 5 Home media 5.1 Unrated Director's Cut 5.2 Unrated Collector's Edition 5.3 Soundtrack 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Plot

This plot summary may be too long or overly detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (December 2009)

Seth Baxter (Joris Jarsky), a convicted murderer, awakens chained to a table beneath a pendulum blade. In order to release himself, he must destroy his hands by pushing switches located between small presses. He does as the video tells him, but the pendulum still swings down and violently cuts him in half. Just before he dies, he sees an eye watching him through a hole in the wall.

In the makeshift sickroom of the Gideon Meatpacking Plant, Agent Peter Strahm (Scott Patterson) finds Jeff Reinhart and shoots him in an act of self-defense; he is subsequently sealed within the room, which also contains the bodies of John Kramer, Amanda Young and Dr. Lynn Denlon. He soon discovers a hidden door leading to a small passageway; a taped message warns him not to go further, but he ignores it, only to be attacked by a figure wearing a pig mask. He awakens with his head trapped in a glass box that slowly fills with water; a tracheotomy using a pen keeps him breathing. Outside the plant, the police find Lieutenant Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) holding Corbett Reinhart (Niamh Wilson), Jeff's daughter. He claims they are the only survivors, only to be shocked when Strahm is carried out alive as well.

Jill Tuck (Betsy Russell) obtains a videotape and box from John's will. The tape informs her that the items in the box are of “grave importance” and that she will know how to use them; she opens the box using a key around her neck and looks inside, then takes it and leaves without disclosing its contents. Meanwhile, a memorial service is held for the five officers dead at John Kramer's (Tobin Bell) indirect hands: David Tapp, Steven Sing, Allison Kerry, Eric Matthews and Daniel Rigg. During this memorial, Hoffman is promoted by the chief of police for ending the Jigsaw murders. He is later informed that Lindsey Perez (Athena Karkanis), Strahm's partner, died from her shrapnel wounds. He steals Strahm's cell phone, then finds Strahm at the hospital; Strahm informs him that Perez's last word was Hoffman's name. Dan Erickson (Mark Rolston), Strahm's boss, removes Strahm from duty, and Strahm begins working out Hoffman's involvement with Jigsaw on his own.

Elsewhere, Ashley, Charles, Brit, Mallick, and Luba awaken in a sewer with collars around their necks connected to guillotine blades positioned on the wall behind them. The keys to the collars are in glass boxes at the other end of the room; all but Ashley (Laura Gordon) reach the keys in time, and she is decapitated when her collar retracts into the guillotine. In the next room, three keys must be found in jars hanging from the ceiling in order to unlock three chambers that will shelter them from bombs. Charles (Carlo Rota) attacks Mallick (Greg Bryk) and takes his key, but is struck down by Luba (Meagan Good), who returns Mallick's key and leaves Charles to die in the explosion. In the third room, five electrical cables must be connected to a bathtub filled with water to unlock the five locks on the door, though none are long enough to reach. Luba attacks Mallick in an attempt to use his body to close the circuits; this fails when Brit (Julie Benz) stabs her from behind with an electrical hook. They together use her corpse to close the circuits and unlock the door. In the final room, the door must be unlocked by filling a beaker, positioned in a machine fitted with circular saws, with ten pints of blood. They notice that there are five armholes and realize that all five of them were supposed to work together in every room so that all five could survive the games; they also realize that all five of them were connected in a building fire that had killed eight people. With no other options, they begin sawing their arms to provide the required amount of blood.

While the series of games are playing out, Strahm collects the files of Jigsaw's previous victims and travels to different scenes to piece together Hoffman's involvement with them. He learns that it was Hoffman who killed Seth Baxter with the inescapable pendulum trap out of revenge, as Seth had killed Hoffman's sister and had been let out of prison early on a technicality. He was later led to John Kramer, who captured him and used his knowledge of Seth's murder to blackmail Hoffman into becoming his apprentice. The two worked together to set up John's earlier games, most notably the razor-wire trap from the first film and the nerve gas house from the second film. Hoffman also planted the penlight that framed Dr. Lawrence Gordon, as well as providing the files of the seven victims of the nerve gas house. Meanwhile, Hoffman indirectly gets a tracker placed on Strahm's phone and plants it in the observation room of the sewer along with Erickson's personal file. Erickson follows the phone's trail to the observation room just as Brit and Mallick get the door open. Mallick passes out from blood loss, his arm sliced down the middle, while Brit crawls into the observation room and is found by Erickson, who also discovers Strahm's phone and his own file. He calls for medical assistance, then places an all-points bulletin for Strahm's arrest.

Simultaneously, Strahm follows Hoffman to the renovated nerve gas house. He enters and follows the underground path to a small underground room containing a transparent box full of broken glass. Within is a microcassette from Hoffman; its message tells Strahm that he must trust him and enter the box. Strahm stops the tape short and ambushes Hoffman when he arrives, ultimately sealing Hoffman in the box and subsequently causing the doorway to the room to seal itself. Hoffman indicates the tape, which goes on to tell Strahm that if he chooses not to, he will "simply vanish" and Hoffman's legacy will become his own. The glass box is lowered safely into the floor, while the walls slowly close in and crush Strahm to death.

[edit] Cast

• Tobin Bell as John Kramer/Jigsaw
• Costas Mandylor as Lieutenant Mark Hoffman
• Scott Patterson as Agent Peter Strahm
• Betsy Russell as Jill Tuck
• Julie Benz as Brit
• Meagan Good as Luba
• Mark Rolston as Dan Erickson
• Carlo Rota as Charles
• Greg Bryk as Mallick
• Laura Gordon as Ashley
• Joris Jarsky as Seth Baxter
• Mike Butters as Paul Leahy
• Mike Realba as Detective Fisk
• Samantha Lemole as Pamela Jenkins
• Lyriq Bent as Lieutenant Daniel Rigg
• Athena Karkanis as Agent Lindsey Perez
• Justin Louis as Art Blank
• Donnie Wahlberg as Detective Eric Matthews
• Danny Glover as Detective David Tapp
• Shawnee Smith as Amanda Young
• Bahar Soomekh as Lynn Denlon
• Niamh Wilson as Corbett Reinhart
• Angus Macfadyen as Jeff Reinhart
• Tony Nappo as Gus Colyard
• Tim Burd as Obi Tate
• Sarah Power as Angelina Acomb

[edit] Development

Saw V was written by Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan,^[4][5] and the film went into production after Christmas 2007.^[6] Filming began on March 17, 2008 in Toronto,^[7] and principal photography concluded on April 28, 2008.^{[citation needed]} Saw V finished filming by May 2, 2008 and went into post-production.^[7][8] By mid-July 2008, there had been three photos released of David Hackl at the set of Saw V.^[9] The first trailer, depicting Agent Strahm's box trap, was released at Comic-Con 08 as a short clip and the trailer was also shown before The X-Files: I Want to Believe.^[10][11] The website opened on August 6, 2008. On September 17, 2008, a new clip was available on the Saw V website, depicting the Pendulum Trap.

[edit] Release

The film was released in Australia on October 23, 2008,^[12] in North America and the United Kingdom on October 24, 2008,^[4][12] and in New Zealand on October 30, 2008.^[12]

[edit] Box office performance

In its opening weekend, Saw V grossed $30 million in 3,060 theaters in the United States and Canada, ranking #2 at the box office^[13] behind High School Musical 3: Senior Year. ^[14] It grossed $56,746,769 in North America, and an additional $57,110,764 internationally, for a worldwide total of $113,857,533.^[15] With the highest budget and lowest gross of all five films, Saw V was the least successful of the series, though it is also still considered a very strong success for making back nearly ten times its budget in theaters. This counts as the second film in the series to not be #1 at the box office, the first was the first film.

[edit] Critical reception

The film received generally negative reviews from critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 15% of critics gave the film positive reviews, making it the poorest-reviewed film in the series. One critic stating that "If its plot were as interesting as its torture devices, or its violence less painful than its performances, perhaps Saw V might not feel like it was running on fumes."^[16] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 19 out of 100, based on 12 reviews.^[17]

Elizabeth Weizman of the New York Daily News believed that the lack of Tobin Bell's character hurt the film: "Bell's deliciously twisted madman was the lifeline of this series, and without him, we're left watching a routine horror flick that might as well have gone straight to DVD. The series began with two major assets that set it apart: the concept of a brilliantly righteous executioner, and the actor who played him. Now, aside from Bell's brief, intermittent cameos, it has neither. So where the original Saw was diabolical fun, this fifth installment is as bloodless as the most unfortunate of Jigsaw's victims."^[18] Sam Adams of the Los Angeles Times wrote that "The virtues of the individual films are almost beside the point, since it's hard to imagine why anyone would want to pick up the thread at this late date, but Saw V is a particularly dull and discombobulated affair, shot and acted with all the flair of a basic-cable procedural".^[19]

Some reviews were positive, however. British website Digital Spy was relatively positive about the film, rating it 3/5 stars and commending the film for its "solid acting, slick direction and suitably filthy cinematography too", while also stating it will "make far more sense to those familiar with the previous installments".^[20] IGN awarded the film with 3 out of 5 stars stating that the film ties up most of the loose ends of the previous 4 installments while also having a more straightforward and less complicated storyline. They also praised the traps for being the most inventive and best that the Saw franchise has had to offer.^[21]

[edit] Home media

[edit] Unrated Director's Cut

During an interview at the 2008 Scream Awards, David Hackl claimed that his director's cut of Saw V (released on DVD January 20, 2009^[22]), would run approximately 14 minutes longer than the theatrical cut. Hackl also stated that a number of scenes in the film would be re-ordered and arranged differently than in the theatrical cut.^[23]

In this version, several changes have been made from the theatrical version^[24]:

• Seth's death is extended and is more graphic.
• Seth whispers "I did what I was supposed to do", before he dies.
• Re-edited sequence: Strahm opening the sick room door has been cut. Instead, the screen is blacked out with Strahm saying "Let me see your hands! Let me see your fucking hands!" (the line is now Saw IV continuity accurate), with picture coming in at Jeff's "Where is my daughter, you mother fucker?!" line. The shot of Jeff with his back turned to Strahm has been cut. We never leave the sick room during the recap so the Saw IV shots of Hoffman leaving Jigsaw's lair have also been cut.
• A couple of extra shots of Strahm in the box before the water floods in.
• The scene with John's tape ends with Jill slamming the box shut. John's lawyer asking Jill "What's in the box?" with her replying "Thanks for your time, Mr. Feldman" lines have been cut.
• The reporter Pamela Jenkins's line of "Why isn't this a joint press conference with the FBI?" has been cut.
• Re-edited sequence: Cut from Hoffman leaving his office after finding the "I Know Who You Are" message to him digging through the evidence locker for Strahm's phone, but instead of him grabbing the phone and leaving like in the theatrical version, another cop tells Hoffman that he is wanted at the hospital and it's about Agent Perez instead.
• Re-edited sequence: Hoffman's scene with Strahm comes before Erickson is introduced instead of after.
• New shot of Ashley's decapitated head.
• Hoffman learning Erickson's name comes earlier.
• Charles laughs when Mallick calls Brit boring.
• When Strahm lays all the Jigsaw files out, we get a lot of rapid flashes of Seth's corpse at the scene of his death.
• New Scene: Flashback with Hoffman and Fisk; Hoffman asks if Kerry is handling the Seth Baxter case and tells Fisk to keep him posted.
• New Scene: We intercut Strahm's "You were involved with every investigation" line with a flashback of Hoffman at his desk. He opens a piece of mail and pulls out the letter inside saying "I Know Who You Are." Hoffman got the message right before meeting Jigsaw. Essentially, when we saw him get it in the theatrical cut, it was the second time he had seen it.
• There is some extra dialogue exchanged between Brit, Mallick, and Luba in the Bathtub trap.
• Hoffman writes something on his notepad and watches Erickson leave after a trace is put on Strahm's phone.
• Re-edited sequence: We cut from Brit's "They all would have worked" line to Strahm following Hoffman, Erickson getting the phone location, etc. Then cut back to Brit and Mallick entering the final room before the bomb goes off.
• There is some extra dialogue exchanged between Brit and Mallick before their last test.
• Brit and Mallick's final test is extended and more graphic.
• Strahm's final trap is extended and more graphic.

[edit] Unrated Collector's Edition

A collector's edition is available with exclusive packaging. It features sound effects, a collector's booklet, and a spinning "saw blade". The features on the DVD itself are the same as the standard Unrated Director's Cut.^[25][26]

[edit] Soundtrack

The soundtrack was released on October 21, 2008 by Artists' Addiction Records.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Saw V

• Official site
• Saw V at the Internet Movie Database
• Saw V at Allmovie
• Saw V at Box Office Mojo
• Saw V at Metacritic
• Saw V at Rotten Tomatoes

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