Saw V.

Review #2590: Saw V.

Cast: 

Tobin Bell (Jigsaw / John Kramer), Costas Mandylor (Mark Hoffman), Scott Patterson (Agent Strahm), Betsy Russell (Jill), Julie Benz (Brit), Meagan Good (Luba), Mark Rolston (Dan Erickson), Carlo Rota (Charles), Greg Bryk (Mallick), and Laura Gordon (Ashley) Directed by David Hackl.

Review: 

"I wanted to make sure it was a good solid story. I didn't want this to feel like all the flashy parts were there from a regular Saw movie, but rather to have everything tied together nicely in the story. I wanted that to be the underlying tone. In order for someone to be frightened by those traps there has to be some emotional investment in the characters, and without that emotional investment the traps are just like any gory horror film. I really wanted to make sure that that didn't happen. I wanted you to know who the people are in the traps, why they're in the traps. I wanted you to feel something for the people in the traps."

Sure, every year required a Saw movie, so why should it be any different the longer that John Kramer is dead? (outlines were being prepped the month that IV came out to theaters). Making his feature film debut was David Hack; the Toronto native actually was a second unit director/production designer on the previous three films. Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, the co-writers of Saw IV (2007) are here for the rest of the original run of these films, which you may remember was the one that took place basically in parallel with the third film (i.e. the one that foolishly decided to kill Amanda off). If you go by what Hackl said at the time of IV's release, there was a whole week to writing an outline, a script by the end of a month before having their little adjustments and things changed right as filming is to end (of course they had full storyboards on set, so I guess they had this stuff ready). Made on a budget of over $10 million, well, you know the movie was a big hit with October audiences.

I just look back at the first two movies and sigh at the following follow-ups that came in the wake of believing that Kramer was a vigilante (yeah, I totally never killed anyone guys, I just merely put them in traps that require somebody to cut people internally or cut themselves to get free) and also had plenty of flashbacks to tell certain people about that makes him still important to look on. At least this time around, they try to give some sort of motive and time to Hoffman (while in turn diminishing Amanda, since only one dead person can stick around in flashbacks) going around as the guy with his own game looming over his head. It just so happens to come around in a movie that has a litany of folks being wrapped up in a game that are given the bare minimum to really do (while killing off the possible most interesting person early) before setting up the inevitable sixth movie with the twist that is at least not nearly as much of a cheat this time around. I should note that having Bell around in "flashback mania" isn't exactly a criticism, since he is his usual convincing self that really does go around with the belief that his crusade is a meaningful one with unnerving conviction. Sure, it might have been more fun when it felt like a path of "hey man, I'm doing this because you don't like life" rather than "so in my flashback of how I became Jigsaw, the vigilante who totally never killed people in a long-winded plan that brings multiple accomplices in the fold...", but at least he isn't phoning it in. 

Mandylor just feels like a cipher with the bare minimum that basically handcuffs him to not being nearly as compelling of a threat as you would hope; you'd think a cop that goes around making their own Jigsaw-type devices (i.e. the one in the intro, which begs the question where he got the voice from, as it is revealed to have been done when Kramer was alive but, well, not doing stuff like that) would be more unnerving, but, well, maybe VI will actually let him breathe. It comes and goes with Patterson in the lone wolf type that makes me miss the days of Danny Glover in the first film. Of the group of new folks in the game that takes up what you might call the B-part of the film (or whatever you call this 92-minute movie), it only sounded interesting that a reporter (Rota) was among the mix of the usual people with "well, I did this one thing that led to a few people's lives being ruined" qualities. Naturally, this can't do, because he goes down the tubes quickly for the would-be final folks with Benz and Byrk and the supposed lesson learned from playing the game (I suppose it's meant to be funny that a series of tests meant to have people work together ended up going in a way where a survivor ends up murdering people anyway). The gore is on the usual level of "oh that does look painful", even if it still has the quirks of editing/color that make you occasionally roll your eyes. As a whole, Saw V doesn't elevate the series, but being a mediocre sequel is better than being an insulting one, so I suppose there are worse things in life than continuing further with whatever happens next.

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.

Since I'm too lazy, here's a link to each of the films reviewed in the series

Saw - the one where Cary Elwes and Danny Glover are in it for a bit before the killer arises from the ground

Saw II - the one with Donnie Wahlberg, more of Tobin Bell and that particular twist for the end

Saw III - the test of Amanda and other things

Saw IV - the mystery of the final game of the killer, at least in theory

Saw X - the one set between 1 and 2 with Jigsaw and Amanda

Late Night with the Devil.

Review #2196: Late Night with the Devil.

Cast: 

David Dastmalchian (Jack Delroy), Laura Gordon (Dr. June Ross-Mitchell), Ian Bliss (Carmichael the Conjurer), Fayssal Bazzi (Christou), Ingrid Torelli (Lilly D'Abo), Rhys Auteri (Gus McConnell), Nicole Chapman (Cleo James), Georgina Haig (Madeleine Delroy), Josh Quong Tart (Leo Fiske), and Michael Ironside (the Narrator) Written and Directed by Colin Cairnes and Cameron Cairnes.

Review: 

"In the '70s and '80s, there was something slightly dangerous about late-night TV. Talk shows in particular were a window into some strange adult world. We thought combining that charged, live-to-air atmosphere with the supernatural could make for a uniquely frightening film experience."

Sure, some films just come out of the blue. The Cairnes brothers had worked on a handful of television and film productions (in or around their native Australia), such as 100 Bloody Acres (2012) and Scare Campaign (2016), which had limited releases, but this film came out of the intent of the two to do something that could be self-contained, which eventually sprang with what they saw as "always felt a little bit taboo and dangerous to us as kids" with late-night talk shows of long ago. Filmed in Australia with a varied level of funding that makes this a production of Australia-UAE-USA, Late Night with the Devil was first shown on the festival circuit in early 2023, but some of us are fortunate to get a screening in a theater (IFC Films and Shudder are behind the distribution for the States prior to release in Australia, and, well, by mid-April one could stream it, so you get the idea). There is a mix of effects that range from the practical to digital to the use of AI-generated ones (with the last one: I don't care for AI as anything other than a guiding tool, so go with that in mind). 

By default, one pretty much compares found footage movies to The Blair Witch Project (1999) when it comes to achieving some sort of effect, I suppose. Fortunately, since that movie is massively overrated, clearing the bar of "Blair Witch" is a step in the right direction, and the conceit generated here by this film works out pretty well for gnarly interest for 93 minutes. I think it is more a movie I wished I liked even more than I did, because while it is a pretty good one, there are a few quibbles one can have, whether in its starting conceit or with its finish, which you may or may not see arise pretty quickly. So yes, it involves the pursuit of ratings under the guise of curiosity, and the opening is the only part that doesn't take place around the set of the show, which does look pretty nice in capturing a feeling of a time long past. The performance of Dastmalchian is the key to the whole film to being what it is when it comes to having to play a second-rate host. Apparently, it was an article he wrote in a magazine about regional hosts that got him asked first. He excels here in that clear-cut balance of self-assuring charm that has the layer of something lurking beyond the surface of someone who you can see loves the audience member that only a showbiz person can love when wanting to love them in confines bigger than one could imagine. Late night hosts can feel like one's friend (unless it is someone who sucks, like Jim-), so it is a tightrope to walk in not playing it as just a Johnny Carson pastiche or clear-cut smarm, and he does well to work it out. Bliss is the one who gets to work out the smarm in a spin probably loosely inspired by James Randi, the famed skeptic and former magician that had a handful of appearances dedicated to knocking on alleged paranormal activity (such as fraud Uri Geller, who failed to bend spoons like a fraud on live TV and then failed to successfully sue Randi when he wrote a book calling him a fraud) who also offered a cash prize if someone could prove their powers (no one ever did). His skepticism fuels the film with worthwhile conflict that is is self-aggrandizing in the most delightful of senses, particularly when paired against Gordon and her do-gooder attitude to trying to be validated in a interesting sort of contradictions (as only one can do, with a book tour but totally not willing to go all-out in parading a teenager on television, sure). Auteri plays a quality sidekick to the presentation as it degrades into one certain type of desperation in mind. Torelli plays pretty key to the film as well when it comes to an aura that likes to back in the glow of a camera by staring right into it that fits right in with the movie's presentation of clear-cut terror looming. The ending can be a bit hit or miss depending on one likes to see dread stick the landing when it finally boils to a head. Personally, this might seem odd, but I kind of wish the film ended just a minute or two before it really ends, because one could really have it go completely Twilight Zone and have it end with a great twist involving a man sacrificing the things around him to be #1 only to be trapped in a never-ending illusion. But at any rate, I accept the conclusion when it comes to sealing some entertaining dread in footage form for a movie that is on the level in pretty good execution from everyone involved. It is the kind of indie film that could make a solid recommendation on a late night for one who craves building of dread within comfortable confines.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.