It’s that time of year again. Saw has returned for yet another installment of sadistic torture and life or death decisions. The franchise has received some “mixed” reviews in the past and by “mixed” I mean that some of the sequels have been called the worst and most pointless films ever created. The issue was that the writers completely deviated from what made the original Saw so interesting and attractive. The first Saw movie didn’t have to rely on presenting extreme gore on screen every five minutes to have a sense of urgency or horror; it shone through its dense, complex and psy- chologically disturbing plot. Saw VI comes closest to bringing the series back to its roots by making it over the top but not sacrificing crucial story points to do so. Of course, the frightening and brutal Rube Goldberg like deathtraps are back with a vengeance but the moral dilemmas that come with them feel much more intense and emotional than in the past films.

The main villain of the Saw franchise, John Kramer (Tobin Bell), better known as the Jigsaw Killer, is back yet again (despite being killed off sev- eral films ago) delivering orders through videotapes and his henchmen. His newest victims are no longer drug junkies and thieves, but instead they are mortgage lenders and, in the case of the star of his newest game, William Easton (Peter Outerbridge), an executive at a health insurance company (possibly a stab at the health insurance issue in America?). Easton, just like the poor victims in every past sequel, must show his will to live by surviving a handful of Jigsaw’s horrific tests.

Although the film isn’t up to par with the original Saw, it definitely has a lot more to offer than its predecessors. There’s a certain line to be drawn where a movie has to make the gore its only strong point and Saw VI seems to be on the right track to finding out where that line should go.

Rated R for language and sequences of grisly violence and torture.