'Saw V' review

Tobin Bell (Credit: Steve Wilkie/Lionsgate)

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Technically Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) is still dead, but his legacy of wildly complicated contraptions lives on thanks to random accomplices (currently, Costas Mandylor) who pick up where he left off. (Plus, flashbacks again give further explanation to how Jigsaw went batty, as if we’ll eventually go, “Ohhhhh, now I get it.”) Really, it’s just another opportunity to celebrate brutality, with another round of bait-torture-kill for victims/actors (Meagan Good, Julie Benz, Mark Rolston) required only to pant, cry and scream.

The buzz: The “Saw” films have gone from two stars to one star to a half-star to zero stars. Considering outing number five comes from a first-time director and the writers of the mind-numbing "Saw IV," there's little reason to believe the slide will be reversed. Not helping matters: ads that claim, "You won't believe how it ends," despite the lack of any actual conclusion in sight … since pre-production has reportedly already begun on "Saw VI,” for which VH1's reality show "Scream Queens" will award a supporting role.

The verdict: Indeed, I don’t believe how it ends. I also didn’t believe how it started, what happened after that or what happened after that. A packed midnight screening didn’t gasp once, nor was there a moment when Jigsaw’s moral policing—Want to appreciate life? Well, die!!!—registered as anything but twisted bullying. Once again going nowhere while going too far, “Saw V” embodies what happens when movies exist less as a creative enterprise than a financial investment. It doesn’t just insult your intelligence; It assumes you have none.

Did you know? The most memorable death device this time involves a blood drainage system that requires filling a glass up past a certain line. This may be the closest the “Saw” series ever comes to a “Double Dare” physical challenge.

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