Illustration: Sam Rosenfeld

The latest installment in the Saw series tries desperately to fill five films worth of plot gaps. Under the pressure of releasing a franchise movie every Halloween, inconsistencies and confusing character alliances have become a familiar part of the Saw viewing experience.

Saw VI features the now-dead killer John Kramer (Tobin Bell)—a.k.a. Jigsaw—who still manages to engage certain people in games for their life. Jigsaw’s post-mortem pact with certain characters—that execute his sick game according to specific instructions—is an interesting enough dynamic to drive the first half of the movie.

In this film, unlike others in the series, Jigsaw’s reasoning behind picking his victims seems born less out of his warped mind—it’s a specific plan, hatched out of vengeance. This time, those put through Jigsaw’s gruesome games are chosen because they are, what I’ll call, ‘enemies of the recession.’  They deviate from the typical selection of sufferers, who were chosen for their lacking of appreciation for living.  If you’ve had a loss from the economic downturn, I assure you that Jigsaw will provide a sadistic outlet for your frustration.

The film’s writers, Marcus Dunstand and Patrick Melton, who undoubtedly worked to deliver a script on deadline, fail slightly in their storytelling. The writers tried too hard to suture the gaps that the other films create, so much so that the first part of this movie is bogged down with exhaustive flashbacks. It was a tough baptism for anyone seeing Saw for the first time, as the movie was congested with too much self-referential (and largely narcissistic) back-story.

As a result of the writers’ choice to cast the villains as the Demons of Wall Street, the movie aims to have the viewer sympathize with Jigsaw’s murderous endeavors. It’s presented like a righteous, justified slaughter.

Detective Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) is an egotistic pawn carrying out the now notorious “games.” But Mandylor lacks the evil charisma that Bell has. And for me, Hoffman’s lack of superficial charm made him brutally unlikeable.

His lack of likability ends up being critical. As Jigsaw’s minions (including Hoffman) follow his instructions to the letter, we witness him turning his Charles Manson-esque followers against each other. And while this twist may not be as drastic as that of M. Night Shyamalan’s, it’s enough to quicken your heartbeat and suck the air from your lungs.

Saw VI is better than its predecessors because of its timely delicious victims, and will definitely leave you salivating and wanting more.