SAW WEEK ON IHDB
"SAW VI" released on October 23rd, 2009
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Two predatory lenders, Simone and Eddie (Tanedra Howard and Marty Moreau) awaken on either side of a room split by a caged-in scale, wearing head harnesses with screws poised to pierce their temples. The one who sets more flesh weight upon their scales will survive. Eddie cuts fat from his torso, but Simone chops off her arm, and Eddie is killed when the timer expires. As he reviews the game's footage, Detective Lieutenant Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) is called to the scene by FBI Agent Dan Erickson (Mark Rolston), who has found Peter Strahm's fingerprints at the scene (unaware that Hoffman has already killed Strahm and planted the evidence to implicate him). Hoffman is surprised to find FBI Agent Lindesy perez also present - having survived Jigsaw's exploding doll trap, although with prominent facial scars - who is skeptical of Strahm's involvement in the killings.
Hoffman later meets John Kramer's ex-wife Jill Tuck (Betsy Russell) who delivers a package from a box given to her by John (Tobin Bell), with instructions for one last game (a later flashback shows that Jill met with Kramer at the plant hours before his death, where he gave her the box's key and his promise that she would be protected when the games ended). Chosen to participate in the new game is Umbrella Health insurance executive, William Easton (Peter Outerbridge), who previously denied John's insurance claim for an experimental procedure that could have cured his cancer. Hoffman abducts Easton from his office that night and brings him to an abandoned zoo, where he and his janitor, Hank, awaken in vises designed to tighten around their torsos each time they breathe into oxygen masks strapped to their faces. Kramer himself appears in a videotape and informs Easton that he has one hour to complete four tests and remove the bombs strapped to his limbs, or he will lose his family. Easton survives the first trap (as Hank, being a heavy smoker, could not hold his breath for bery long), and follows a path through the zoo, where he faces other tests which force him to save his co-workers from traps - or at least chose which one will die - including a hanging room, a steam room, and a carousel.
Meanwhile, the game is being viewed by a woman named Tara Abbott (Shauna MacDonald) and her son Brent (Devon Bostick) from a cage below the observation room, which contains a tank of hydrofluoric acid and a switch marked "Live" and "Die". Pamela Jenkins, a reporter who earlier questioned Hoffman about the Jigsaw killings, also awakens in the cage next to them. During the game, Hoffman is called away by Erickson and Perez, who found the Baxter videotape (Hoffman's first victim) and are having it unscrambled by an offsite technician. They inform him that abnormalities were found in Strahm's fingerprints, and Erickson eventually reveals their knowledge of Strahm's death. The moment his voice is unscrambled, Hoffman attacks and kills everyone in the room, plants fingerprints using Strahm's severed hand, and lights the room on fire to destroy the evidence. Ariving back at the zoo, Hoffman is ambushed by Jill, just as Easton arrives and faces the Abbott's and Jenkins - revealing Jenkins' is his sister and the Abbott's are the family of a man (George Newbern) Easton also denied an insurance claim for. In a gripping final test, Tara and Devon get to decide Easton's final fate, while Jill fits a gruesome "reverse bear trap" around Hoffman's head and reveals John's final test for Hoffman!
Hoffman later meets John Kramer's ex-wife Jill Tuck (Betsy Russell) who delivers a package from a box given to her by John (Tobin Bell), with instructions for one last game (a later flashback shows that Jill met with Kramer at the plant hours before his death, where he gave her the box's key and his promise that she would be protected when the games ended). Chosen to participate in the new game is Umbrella Health insurance executive, William Easton (Peter Outerbridge), who previously denied John's insurance claim for an experimental procedure that could have cured his cancer. Hoffman abducts Easton from his office that night and brings him to an abandoned zoo, where he and his janitor, Hank, awaken in vises designed to tighten around their torsos each time they breathe into oxygen masks strapped to their faces. Kramer himself appears in a videotape and informs Easton that he has one hour to complete four tests and remove the bombs strapped to his limbs, or he will lose his family. Easton survives the first trap (as Hank, being a heavy smoker, could not hold his breath for bery long), and follows a path through the zoo, where he faces other tests which force him to save his co-workers from traps - or at least chose which one will die - including a hanging room, a steam room, and a carousel.
Meanwhile, the game is being viewed by a woman named Tara Abbott (Shauna MacDonald) and her son Brent (Devon Bostick) from a cage below the observation room, which contains a tank of hydrofluoric acid and a switch marked "Live" and "Die". Pamela Jenkins, a reporter who earlier questioned Hoffman about the Jigsaw killings, also awakens in the cage next to them. During the game, Hoffman is called away by Erickson and Perez, who found the Baxter videotape (Hoffman's first victim) and are having it unscrambled by an offsite technician. They inform him that abnormalities were found in Strahm's fingerprints, and Erickson eventually reveals their knowledge of Strahm's death. The moment his voice is unscrambled, Hoffman attacks and kills everyone in the room, plants fingerprints using Strahm's severed hand, and lights the room on fire to destroy the evidence. Ariving back at the zoo, Hoffman is ambushed by Jill, just as Easton arrives and faces the Abbott's and Jenkins - revealing Jenkins' is his sister and the Abbott's are the family of a man (George Newbern) Easton also denied an insurance claim for. In a gripping final test, Tara and Devon get to decide Easton's final fate, while Jill fits a gruesome "reverse bear trap" around Hoffman's head and reveals John's final test for Hoffman!
TRIVIA: The script that was given to the new cast members of the Saw franchise was named "Evolution III". This was done so the script wouldn't leak out. Evolution Pictures is the company that owns Twisted Pictures.
Top: Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) emerges safely from the trap that kills Agent Strahm;
Above: Later, Hoffman receives instructions for a new "game" from the ex-wife of his mentor, Jill Tuck (Betsy Russell)
As with previous installments of the series, development for Saw VI began almost immediately after the release of the previous film, with Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, writers of Saw IV and Saw V, returning to write the sixth installment. Melton said that the film had good pacing and a resolution for the series, while Greutert commented that Saw VI would have some finality to it, something he always wanted to see in the series. During the early planning stage for the script it was suggested that Mandylor's character, Detective Hoffman, should take on the mafia, but the idea was quickly dismissed as not "feeling Saw enough". On May 14, 2008, Bloody Disgusting reported that Kevin Greutert, the editor of the first five films in the franchise, would make his directorial debut with Saw VI, newcomer to the series, Andrew Coutts, replacing him as editor for the film. A week before filming was scheduled to commence, Lionsgate informed Greutert that they intended to convert Saw VI into 3-D in post production, a move that greatly upset Greutert as he believed he was not prepared for the additional work that would be required to shoot the sequences with 3-D in mind. Eventually the idea was dropped by Lionsgate due to budget and time constraints.
Series stars Tobin bell and Costas Mandylor were quickly announced as returning for the sixth installment, playing John Kramer/Jigsaw and Jigsaw's protege Detective Mark Hoffman respectively. Betsy Russell, Mark Rolston, and Athena Karkanis also returned as their characters Jill Tuck, Special Agent Erickson and Agent Lindsey Perez. It was confirmed on March 24, 2009 that Shawnee Smith would return as Amanda Young, featured in new "flashback" scenes (instead of using archive footage from previous entries) to further explain certain unanswered questions from previous films. This would be the first time Smith had rejoined the series since Saw III. Samantha Lemole, who played a bit part in Saw V as reporter Pamela Jenkins, returns with a much more expanded role. Canadian actor Peter Outerbridge was announced as Saw VI's protagonist, William Easton (brother to Pamela Jenkins character), and was joined by other new cast members to the Saw franchise, Shauna MacDonald, George Newbern, and Devon Bostick as the Abbott family, Tara, Harold and Brent Abbott. Greutert had wanted to bring Cary Elwes's character Dr. Gordon back but Elwes was not available at the time (although Elwes would later be cast in Saw 3D, though the story-line is very different than the one Greutert had for him in Saw VI). Tanedra Howard, the winner of VH1's reality show Scream Queens - which was hosted by Shawnee Smith - won a role for this film where she plays the role of Simone, one of the opening scenes victims.
Series stars Tobin bell and Costas Mandylor were quickly announced as returning for the sixth installment, playing John Kramer/Jigsaw and Jigsaw's protege Detective Mark Hoffman respectively. Betsy Russell, Mark Rolston, and Athena Karkanis also returned as their characters Jill Tuck, Special Agent Erickson and Agent Lindsey Perez. It was confirmed on March 24, 2009 that Shawnee Smith would return as Amanda Young, featured in new "flashback" scenes (instead of using archive footage from previous entries) to further explain certain unanswered questions from previous films. This would be the first time Smith had rejoined the series since Saw III. Samantha Lemole, who played a bit part in Saw V as reporter Pamela Jenkins, returns with a much more expanded role. Canadian actor Peter Outerbridge was announced as Saw VI's protagonist, William Easton (brother to Pamela Jenkins character), and was joined by other new cast members to the Saw franchise, Shauna MacDonald, George Newbern, and Devon Bostick as the Abbott family, Tara, Harold and Brent Abbott. Greutert had wanted to bring Cary Elwes's character Dr. Gordon back but Elwes was not available at the time (although Elwes would later be cast in Saw 3D, though the story-line is very different than the one Greutert had for him in Saw VI). Tanedra Howard, the winner of VH1's reality show Scream Queens - which was hosted by Shawnee Smith - won a role for this film where she plays the role of Simone, one of the opening scenes victims.
[Billy the Puppet appears before Easton]
Jigsaw: [recorded voice] Hello, William. You've probably been wondering when we would see each other again. Today is that day. For years your probability formula has decided the fate of others. The healthy have benefited while the potentially sick have been unjustly rejected. However, this formula does not take into account the human will to live. When faced with death, who should live versus who will live are two entirely separate things. Today your policy will be put to the test. There are four straps around your limbs and you have four tests you must complete, for if you don't, the straps on your arms and legs will detonate. Look closely. You have sixty minutes to complete your tests and avoid this fate, starting now.
Top: In a flashback, it is revealed that John Kramer (Tobin Bell) - aka, Jigsaw - himself was denied a medical insurance claim that could have saved his life;
Above: The very same insurance executive, William Easton (Peter Outerbridge) is forced now to chose who lives and who dies in a series of brutal "tests", including the Carousel Trap!
Like all the Saw films before (with the exception of the first Saw movie), Saw VI was filmed in Toronto, with production beginning on March 30, 2009, at Toronto's Cinespace Film Studios. Compared to Saw IV and Saw V, which most of the traps were set in big rooms and involved several people at one time, Greutert felt that the victims in traps should be more one-on-one with the trap and would be more personal to them. The exception of course being the Carousel Trap. Originally the Carousel was to feature ten victims, but this was cut down to six to cut down the length of the scene, and also tie in to the film's title. Commenting on the "carousel room" trap, series cinematographer David Armstrong said: "It's very carnival, playground-like. It's just nasty. [There are] spinning red lights in there. It's really overwhelming to walk in and look at because everything is spinning." Greutert said in an issue of the horror magazine Fangoria that the "carousel room" was, to date, the "longest trap scene ever", coming in at a little over 8-minutes of screen-time.
Editing for Saw VI was first completed on July 10, 2009, but due to the complex ending, series producers Mark Burg and Oren Koules took another week to perfectly calibrate the final 5 minutes, before the cut was officially locked on July 21. Prior to the film's release, Mandylor (Hoffman) didn't even know if his character lived or died in the ending due to shooting multiple endings. One of those alternative endings included a revenge trap set up by Special Agent Strahm for Hoffman to die in. Additionally for the final sequence, multiple versions were shot and edited. In the director's cut the Reverse Bear Trap 2.0 timer gives a time limit of 60 seconds and is begun once Brent (Devon Bostick) pulls the "Live or Die" switch down. In the theatrical cut the trap is set at 45 seconds, a shorter time limit, and does not begin on Brent's cue. The timer is started after Brent pulls the "Live or Die" switch and Jill (Betsy Russell) pulls the trigger by closing the door.
Editing for Saw VI was first completed on July 10, 2009, but due to the complex ending, series producers Mark Burg and Oren Koules took another week to perfectly calibrate the final 5 minutes, before the cut was officially locked on July 21. Prior to the film's release, Mandylor (Hoffman) didn't even know if his character lived or died in the ending due to shooting multiple endings. One of those alternative endings included a revenge trap set up by Special Agent Strahm for Hoffman to die in. Additionally for the final sequence, multiple versions were shot and edited. In the director's cut the Reverse Bear Trap 2.0 timer gives a time limit of 60 seconds and is begun once Brent (Devon Bostick) pulls the "Live or Die" switch down. In the theatrical cut the trap is set at 45 seconds, a shorter time limit, and does not begin on Brent's cue. The timer is started after Brent pulls the "Live or Die" switch and Jill (Betsy Russell) pulls the trigger by closing the door.
TRIVIA: Was said to be the last Saw movie for Kevin Greutert before he got placed in the director's chair for Saw 3D: The Final Chapter (2010).
Top: Debut director Kevin Greutert on set with Peter Outerbridge, and (above) with series star Tobin Bell
Saw VI opened in 3,036 theaters on 4,000 screens, earning $6.9 million on its opening day - in second place behind Paranormal Activity which grossed $7.5 million that day during its second weekend of wide release. Grossing $14.1 million its opening weekend (and a total of $68 million at the US/Worldwide box office), Saw VI would be lowest grossing film of the Saw series. While Saw VI was not screened for critics in advance, the film received generally mixed reviews. Rob Nelson of Variety wrote, "Squeezing another pint of blood from its torture-porn corpus, Lionsgate slays again with Saw VI, a film so frighteningly familiar it could well be called 'Saw It Already'. At least the requisite moralism is more playful than pious in this edition", but added, "Presumably owing to director Kevin Greutert's work as editor of all five previous Saw pics, the film's juggling of chronology is the franchise's best...." Christopher Monfette of IGN Movies rated Saw VI three out of five and wrote that "while Saw VI certainly offers a redemption for the series and the promise of a coming power struggle for Jigsaw's legacy, Saw VI will no doubt mark the time to either shake things up or watch this franchise get the ax". Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter said, "If this is torture porn, it's as if it was designed to be enjoyed by Michael Moore." He closed his review saying, "As usual, what gives the film whatever interest it has -- beyond satisfying the rapacious appetites of gore aficionados -- is the moral element attached to the various Rube Goldberg-style set pieces. Here, it's exemplified by a well-staged sequence in which a man must choose who lives or dies during a particularly lethal variation of musical chairs."
For IHdb's review of the remaining films in the Saw franchise - as well as video extras, trailers, and much, much more - be sure to Follow Us on our Facebook Page during our exclusive Saw Week on IHdb!
For IHdb's review of the remaining films in the Saw franchise - as well as video extras, trailers, and much, much more - be sure to Follow Us on our Facebook Page during our exclusive Saw Week on IHdb!
ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE: 36%
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