I'll admit it right now, I am a Saw fan. They may not be the best films ever, but they've been consistently enjoyable and generally gripping throughout the series rushed time-span. Over the years they've become less and less stand-alone and more like an annual horror serial, always ending on a neat twist and cliffhanger that provides anticipation for the next entry. It may seem like a cash cow to some, but I think it's an approach that works with the series' narrative $tyle.

The only real major misstep so far has been part V, which did little to further the plot (and even now part VI is out, it's "game" still has little relevance), had fairly boring kill scenes for the most part and did a pretty poor job of really fleshing out the Hoffman character as a believable Jigsaw successor (which was especially disappointing after Saw IV's end reveal).

Thankfully, Saw VI manages to dodge past most of V's problems and seems to go a way towards getting the series back on track. I'd say it's probably the best one since part III.

Aside from an admittedly OTT opener (even by series standards), the story picks up pretty much straight from where V left off. With Agent Strahm now permanently off of his trail, Hoffman sets on completing Jigsaw's final game, while his fellow officers become increasingly suspicious of his intentions. The subject of said game, in a more topical slant, is health insurance exec William, someone who, by job description, essentially chooses who lives and who dies. Predictably, it turns out that he had previously prevented John Kramer (whom we know had been suffering from a brain tumor) from getting access to treatment that may have helped to cure his condition.

Unlike IV and V, the trap sequences are all fairly inventive and all share a central theme, in which the test subject must decide upon the fate of other participants. There's one in particular towards the end that really is a doozy, and is probably the furthest the series has ever gone in terms of the "oh God, that's ****ing gross" factor. It really reminded me of how similar some of these films are to Cube, if any of you have ever seen that (this one and III in particular).

While Tobin Bell and Costas Mandylor both do a great job, a lot of the performances for the more secondary characters are really quite weak and do bring the film down overall. The over-amped editing $tyle is also still a minor annoyance. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It's also pretty heavy on flashbacks (a necessity when you kill off your main character, I guess), with most of them being sort of "and this was also happening during part _" type stuff, which can get in the way sometimes.

The ending was also fairly well done, inevitably leaving it open for the next film but being intense/significant enough that I didn't really care. It seems like there may be a major change of status quo when Saw VII comes around, but I guess I'll have to wait and see. Which brings me to my next point: the movie seemed a little too short. I know 1 ½ hours is the standard kind of length for these films, but this one really could have benefited from another 30 minutes or so. It moved along at such a brisk pace in its second half that it doesn't really give you enough time to digest what's going on.

Overall, if you don't like the Saw franchise then this one won't change your mind, but if you're a fan, then you don't want to miss it. I for one enjoyed it. And just for kicks: Saw VI > Paranormal Activity :P.

7/10