5.5 | / 10 |
Users | 2.8 | |
Reviewer | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.8 |
As a deadly battle rages over Jigsaw's brutal legacy, a group of Jigsaw survivors gathers to seek the support of self-help guru and fellow survivor Bobby Dagen, a man whose own dark secrets unleash a new wave of terror.
Starring: Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, Betsy Russell, Cary Elwes, Sean Patrick FlaneryHorror | 100% |
Thriller | 67% |
Crime | 13% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
English, English SDH, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
Digital copy (as download)
DVD copy
BD-Live
Social network features
Mobile features
Region A (locked)
Movie | 1.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
Elvis Presley once famously struck back at critics with an album entitled 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can’t Be Wrong, and yet there were some cynics amongst us who may have asked, “Why not?” The producers of the Saw franchise may, like Elvis (and/or Elvis’ ghost, depending on whether or not you believe The King has indeed left the building), may be saying, “Can $848 million in box office receipts be wrong?” To which the cynics amongst us may just as dogmatically respond, “Yes.” Is the Saw franchise “torture porn” or “torture horror”? Its creators insist it isn’t, and yet it’s hard to argue that point when every film is filled with some of the most disgusting imagery imaginable of (at least sometimes relatively) innocent people getting stuck in the films’ many signature “traps” and meeting their fates in any number of horrible ways. Some sociologist either has already had or no doubt someday will have a field day trying to explain the psychological reasons people need to actually pay money to sit there and watch other humans get their eyeballs sewn shut, their bodies pummeled and hacked by any number of horrible instruments of pain and destruction, their limbs severed, their intestines spilled, and their heads burst apart like some cranial version of David Letterman's "stupid watermelon" tricks. What is it about these films that so appeals to people? “Basic” horror or thriller films are perhaps easier to understand on a general level; after all, virtually everyone enjoys a good scare now and again. But with films like the Saw franchise, where images are so graphic and the violence and mayhem is so patently unappealing, it really raises some serious questions as to what is going on in peoples’ heads that they willingly subject themselves to these nightmare visions. So take this review with the requisite amount of salt (just don’t get it in any gaping flesh wounds, it will most likely sting). Obviously, I am not just immune to the allure of these films, I find their very existence troubling and disturbing, far beyond their “mere” content.
Saw is yet another horror film which so heavily post processes a lot of its image that any assessment of its Blu-ray transfer may be automatically suspect. Delivered via an AVC encode, in 1080p and 1.78:1, Saw: The Final Chapter is largely desaturated, bathed in either yellow or blue for a lot of the film, and wavers between low contrast, moodily dark scenes, and pumped up, overblown contrast moments that rob the film of virtually all fine detail. If you're a fan of this sort of film, you've seen it all before, and this Blu-ray will certainly live up to expectations. Heavily filtered scenes are full of grain and offer robust (usually blue tinged) color. "Normally" lit scenes (and that's definitely a relative term) offer decent enough fine detail and something approaching a natural looking palette. But this is ironically really a strangely bloodless film, from a color standpoint. Even the "real" blood is dirty brown and oddly desaturated. It's a typical technique for films of this ilk, and the Blu-ray reproduces it to a tee, but it means you won't be able to count the hunks of flesh flying out at you from time to time.
Saw: The Final Chapter's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 mix is bombastic and relentless, full of exploding bodies, the ominous sound of buzzsaws and all sorts of foley effects mimicking skin being ripped from bones. If you like that sort of thing, you'll have a field day here with a pretty completely immersive track that offers excellent support of surrounds and at times an overwhelming amount of LFE. In fact, if you divorce the soundtrack from the often hideous images filling the screen, this is actually a fun and involving mix that provides plenty of interest and an at times amazing variety of sound effects. Fidelity is excellent here, and what dialogue there is is placed well and mixed very well into the overall soundfield. Source cues and underscore are also utilized effectively.
If you care about Saw, there are a few decent supplements on this new Blu-ray:
If you're a Saw fan, you're probably wondering what my problem is, and I guess I can't blame you, though of course I'm (jokingly) wondering what your problem is. For you fans of the franchise, this will be a wonderful Blu-ray you will undoubtedly "enjoy," for what that's worth. For the rest of us, this is about as distasteful a film as I can remember, and not just because of the gratuitous violence and gore. The first couple of Saw films at least seemed relatively fresh, even if they were extremely disturbing. Now it's just same old, same old, and even the twists and turns of this supposedly final chapter can't alleviate the slog this film is. For those of you who are more prone to my point of view, let's hope The Final Chapter lives up to its title.
Saw 3D
2010
Single Disc Edition
2010
Theatrical Edition
2010
Unrated
2010
Unrated Edition
2006
Uncut Edition
2009
Unrated Director's Cut
2008
Unrated Director's Cut
2007
Unrated Edition
2005
2004
2017
Unrated
2005
מי מפחד מהזאב הרע / Mi mefakhed mehaze'ev hara
2013
2013
2014
2012
2013
Unrated
2010
2012
Director's Cut
2007
Director's Cut
2005
Hellraiser V
2000
2009
2016