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Saw 3D Jigsaw Spiral

Jigsaw is a horror film directed by Michael and Peter Spierig and written by Josh Stolberg and Pete Goldfinger. It was the eighth film in the Saw franchise and was released on October 27, 2017.

Plot[]

A criminal named Edgar Munsen flees from the police, eventually ending up on a rooftop where he finds a remote. As the officers corner him, Edgar frantically tells them to call Detective Brad Halloran to avoid five people's deaths. When Halloran and his new partner, Detective Keith Hunt, arrive at the scene, Edgar informs them that he is forced to play a game but refuses to drop the remote. When he finally pulls the trigger, the cops start shooting at him. Although Halloran ordered them to aim for the remote, one bullet hits Edgar in the chest, causing him to collapse and lose consciousness.

The scene shifts to a room where five people are trapped, each with a shackle around their neck. An audio recording from John Kramer, the infamous Jigsaw Killer, informs them that they must atone for their sins and sacrifice a small amount of blood to escape from the chamber. After receiving their instructions, the prisoners are dragged toward several rotating buzzsaws by the chains connected to their shackles. Four of them survive the game and are allowed to move to the next room after letting the saws cut their flesh. However, the last prisoner does not wake up in time and is ultimately pulled into the blades.

In the next room, the survivors learn that one of them, a young woman named Carly, accidentally caused an asthmatic woman's death when she stole the latter's purse, which contained the woman's inhaler. Meanwhile, three syringes are presented to the prisoners, each marked with different numbers - one holds the antidote for a poison injected into Carly's system, one contains a saline solution, and the last contains hydrofluoric acid. Carly must pick the right needle while the chains pull the prisoners toward the ceiling. However, as she refuses to do so, her fellow prisoner, Ryan, ultimately grabs the syringes and injects all three of them into her neck. Carly is killed by the acid, whereas the others are released from their shackles. Following her demise, the remaining survivors discover that the correct needle was marked with "3,53" - the same amount of money Carly stole from the asthmatic woman. Another set of numbers on the needle's plunger allows them to open a combination lock securing the door to the next room.

Soon afterward, two corpses, who seem to be the man from the first game and Carly, are found in public places. Therefore, Halloran and Keith investigate the case. Meanwhile, citizens start questioning whether John Kramer, who officially passed away a decade earlier, is truly dead. Halloran begins suspecting the coroner, Logan Nelson, and the latter's assistant, Eleanor Bonneville. Logan, whose wife was murdered two years earlier, mistrusts the detective, with whom he has a personal rivalry because Halloran's sloppy work allowed multiple criminals to escape justice. While the police concentrate on finding the killer, Edgar Munsen is abducted from the hospital. Due to the public's fears that John Kramer might still be alive, the police commissioner orders Jigsaw's body to be exhumed. However, Edgar's corpse is found inside the coffin instead of John's remains.

The scene shifts back to Ryan, who attempts to escape through a locked door. However, the floor collapses beneath him, and his right leg gets caught up in sharp wires. Upon looking for another way out, the remaining group members, Anna and Mitch, discover a door leading to a grain silo and are trapped inside. Their abductor informs them that they will be buried alive unless Ryan pulls a lever to free him from the wires and cause them to cut off his leg. Ultimately, Ryan brings himself to save the others, sacrificing his leg.

While Anna treats Ryan's injury, Mitch finds an audiotape in the next room. Moments later, he gets tangled in a sling that pulls him toward the ceiling. The recording reveals that Mitch knowingly sold a motorcycle with faulty breaks to John Kramer's nephew, who died in an accident. Mitch's body is slowly lowered into a funnel with a giant, spiral-shaped blade in its center. His only way to stop the machine and save himself is to pull a brake handle beneath him. Albeit Anna tries to help him and interrupts the deadly mechanism for a couple of seconds, Mitch is ultimately mangled by the rotating blade.

Upon meeting in a bar, Eleanor and Logan talk about Halloran, who becomes increasingly convinced that they are responsible for the latest murders. Afterward, Eleanor takes Logan to her studio, revealing herself as a devoted fan of Jigsaw. Eleanor worries that her secret hobby might incriminate her as the studio contains numerous self-built replicas of John Kramer's traps. Unknown to them, Detective Hunt follows them to the lair and takes several photos. Due to the growing evidence, Halloran orders the coroners to be arrested. As Hunt arrests Logan, the latter convinces him that Halloran is the killer.

Sometime later, Eleanor visits Logan at his house. By examining forensic traces on the latest victims' bodies, she discovered that they died on an abandoned pig farm belonging to the family of Jigsaw's ex-wife, Jill Tuck. Therefore, they set out for the farm while being followed by Halloran.

Meanwhile, Anna tries to escape the barn through a doorway but is subdued by a pig-masked figure. When she wakes up again, she and Ryan are shackled to two opposite walls in a milking room. Their abductor removes his hood, revealing himself as John Kramer, and confronts them about their past misdeeds. Anna, who used to be John's neighbor, smothered her baby in a rage and then incriminated her husband, Matthew, by putting the corpse next to him while he was asleep. Believing that he accidentally killed his child, Matthew was taken to a psychiatric facility, eventually committing suicide in his cell. On the other hand, Ryan carelessly caused a fatal car accident in his youth, resulting in the death of two of his friends and another driver. Later, Ryan blamed his friend to avoid punishment.

John offers Anna and Ryan to atone for their sins, telling them they had been doing things "backwards" and now had to "turn it all around." Meanwhile, he inserts a single shell into a shotgun and refers to it as their "key to freedom." Anna, however, misunderstands his instructions and tries to shoot Ryan. Thereby, the shot backfires and kills her instead. Ryan discovers that the keys to their shackles were hidden inside the shotgun shell and were destroyed when Anna pulled the trigger. With no other chance to escape, Ryan succumbs to his wounds.

Logan and Eleanor eventually reach the barn but are attacked by Halloran. While Eleanor escapes, Logan struggles with the detective and is knocked out by his opponent. Afterward, Halloran himself is subdued by an unknown attacker. Sometime later, both men wake up in the milking room where Anna's and Ryan's final test occurred. They have two collars locked around their necks, armed with high-powered laser cutters. Over the loudspeakers, John Kramer's voice urges them to confess their sins, allowing them to choose who of them goes first. By pressing a button placed between them, Halloran forces Logan to begin. Logan, a former resident at a hospital, admits that he accidentally mislabeled John's X-rays, which caused John's brain tumor to remain undiagnosed until it was no longer curable. Nonetheless, Logan's head is seemingly sliced apart by the lasers. Afterward, Halloran desperately admits that he took bribes and allowed numerous criminals to avoid their rightful punishment.

Suddenly, Logan, who faked his death, rises from the floor and informs him that he has recorded Halloran's confession. He explains that he was the unknown man pulled into the buzzsaws in the first game, which is revealed to have occurred ten years earlier. However, John saved him, not wanting Logan to die over an honest mistake. Logan became his first accomplice until he enlisted in the US Army and left to fight in Iraq. The corpses found throughout the movie were criminals Halloran allowed to remain unpunished. Therefore, Logan chose them to participate in the same game he and the other prisoners faced ten years prior. Logan also reveals that it was Edgar Munsen who killed his wife. He blames Halloran for her death because he helped Edgar avoid prison. Logan ignores the detective's pleas for mercy and reactivates the collar. While he leaves the room, Halloran's head is sliced apart by the lasers.

Cast[]

Production[]

When Saw 3D was filmed in 2010, it was intended to be the final installment in the Saw series. While an eighth film was initially planned to be shot as well, this plan was changed due to the box-office failure of Saw VI. After the intended conclusion, Lionsgate ceased making Saw films while waiting to hear a pitch they thought made it worthwhile to resurrect the series. Jigsaw was conceived when writers Josh Stolberg and Pete Goldfinger, who had spent two years pursuing the opportunity to write a Saw entry, proposed their vision. It became known in July 2016 that brothers Michael and Peter Spierig would direct the film, once again produced by Mark Burg and Oren Koules. Composer Charlie Clouser has described the film as a "reinvention" of the series, opining that "the Spierig brothers can deliver a fresh take on the material that will establish a new storyline and new characters that can carry the saga into the future." The directors further detailed their approach as "Saw for 2017", and Michael Spierig explained, "It's perhaps not quite as vicious, and more fun. But it's still full of gore, that's for sure. It's got a really great mystery, and there are very interesting twists."

In October 2016, production was confirmed to have commenced under the working title of Saw: Legacy. The film was shot in Toronto in November 2016 and entered post-production by January. On March 2, 2017, Bloody Disgusting revealed the first plot details and a complete list of actors, confirming that Tobin Bell would return to play the role of John Kramer. In June 2017, the Motion Picture Association of America listed the film under the official title of Jigsaw, rating it R for "sequences of grisly bloody violence and torture, and for language." On August 14, 2017, the film passed uncut in the United Kingdom with an 18 Certificate from the BBFC. Regarding the new title, writer Josh Stolberg clarified that "when a writer is writing a movie, they put something on the cover page to separate it from other films. So when we were writing this film, the title read Saw: Legacy, but it was never official or decided."

Release[]

On September 16, 2017, Lionsgate released five promotional posters with the caption "He is Everything. He is Everywhere. He is Everyone." These posters showed different people wearing the traditional make-up of the franchise's mascot, Billy the Puppet. Furthermore, Lionsgate initiated the seventh Saw Blood Drive. Before Jigsaw's release in October 2017, mobile blood stations were set up around the United States, offering fans the opportunity to receive a free ticket for the film by donating blood. However, instead of the horror-inspired nurses seen on the traditional Saw Blood Drive posters, the campaign featured several models representing the LGBTQ community, including Grae Drake, Dan Rockwell, Susanne Bartch, Nyakim Gatwech, Shaun Ross, Mosh, Mykie, and Amanda LePore. As the American Red Cross refused to accept blood from sexually active gay men based on FDA regulations, the visual change in the campaign's direction was intended to lay down a marker against discrimination.

Jigsaw was eventually released in the United Kingdom on October 26, 2017, and in the United States on October 27, 2017. It was featured in IMAX screenings for the first week of its theatrical run. The film was released digitally on January 9, 2018, and on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD on January 23, 2018, making it the first Saw film to be re-released in 4K.

Reception[]

Jigsaw grossed $38.1 million in the United States and Canada, and $64.9 million in other territories, earning $102.9 million worldwide while having a budget of $10 million. Like previous installments in the series, the movie generally received unfavorable critics. It was given a rating of 32% from Rotten Tomatoes, based on 91 reviews, while Metacritic gave it a score of 39 out of 100, based on 18 critics. Likewise, IGN granted Jigsaw a score of 4.5/10, writing, "The good news is, Jigsaw is not the worst horror movie of the year. The bad news is, it's still bad enough that that's the good news... [It] doesn't capture what made the Saw franchise work in the first place." Bloody Disgusting gave the film two and a half out of five, saying the film, "while being a fun ride, fails to justify its existence with a story that is overly familiar and a twist that doesn't live up to most of its predecessors."

Soundtrack[]

Jigsaw's soundtrack was composed by Charlie Clouser, who had already been responsible for the soundtrack of the previous films. It was released digitally on October 27, 2017, by Lakeshore Records.

Original Score[]

1. Chase Edgar

2. Bucket Room

3. Bucket Heads

4. Bullet Lodged

5. USB Stick

6. Tricycle

7. Confess

8. Chain Hangers

9. Carly Requiem

10. Barn Confess

11. Leg Wires

12. Exterior Autopsy

13. Silo Wires

14. Kinky Types

15. Question Logan

16. Results Are In

17. Grain Silo

18. Show Me

19. Replica Lair

20. Probable Cause

21. Mitch Tape

22. Cycle Trap

23. Swat Lair

24. And This

25. Anna Ryan

26. The Barn

27. Find Machine

28. Shotgun

29. Two Players

30. Laser Collars

31. Zepp Eight

32. End Credits

Videos[]

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