Movies
[Review] ‘Saw 5’ (‘Saw V’)
“SAW V attempts to make the audience feel smart for sticking along for so long, only when it’s all said and done you’ll feel like a fool for sitting through this disappointment.”
*Spoiler warning…
Being that Lionsgate is already on their fifth SAW film in only five years, you come to know what to expect from the franchise. There are a few expectations that come when going into the theater – there is a good chance you’ll be confused, there will be loads of hyper-editing and most importantly, there will be blood. But what’s really behind the SAW franchise is that not only are we as viewers allowed to enjoy the film with a high level of suspension of disbelief, but we are also expecting to be entertained, no matter how confused we get. Hypothetically, all the filmmakers have to do is play by the rules (they created), and all will be good. It’s too bad nobody can seem to listen to Jigsaw’s advice.
First and foremost, I think it’s important to make it clear that I am a fan of the franchise and have a special place in my heart for the first four films. I was looking forward to SAW V and went in with the same expectations I had for the past three sequels. While the film has some good “moments”, the overall experience was numbing.
In SAW V, Agent Strahm (Scott Patterson) suspects that Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) is Jigsaw’s accomplice after the duo are the only ones to survive Jigsaw’s elaborate game from SAW III and SAW IV. He hunts down Hoffman, while in fact he’s a pawn in yet another (elaborate?) game.
There are a laundry list of problems that begin with the film’s focus on Hoffman and Strahm. Besides the fact that the duo look too much alike, it doesn’t help that the acting is atrocious. Not only is Patterson laughably bad, but he also talks to himself the entire movie. The slow points in the film are literally filled with useless exposition of Agent Strahm thinking out loud. For the duration of the film we watch Hoffman set traps, while Strahm explores old crime scenes and reflects on what “might” have happened. This is where the major problem reveals itself….
…. SAW V is not at all about Jigsaw (Tobin Bell). Yeah, I know he’s dead, but the SAW franchise is synonymous with Jigsaw. To remove him from the franchise and expect fans to follow around Hoffman and Strahm is a goddamnn insult. I was even sold with having Amanda (Shawnee Smith) as the successor and was willing to watch her take the torch (being that she was IN the first SAW), only she was harshly dissolved from the last two films. In a hilarious observation, one spectator compared SAW V to FRIDAY THE 13TH Part V: A NEW BEGINNING – you know, the one where Jason really isn’t the killer?
Had the film been entertaining, maybe our minds wouldn’t have wondered leaving us actually thinking about the plot. SAW V was boring, dull and tedious to watch. It was so dull that I was laughing when the “big reveal” graced the screen. We get various shots from previous scenes in the film connecting all of the dots. I couldn’t help but giggle and think, “I was sitting right here, why did I need a recap of what just happened?” It was like watching the intro to a show after a commercial break…
Furthermore, this is the first SAW film that I figured out the twist with the traps immediately. Leaving the film with zero suspense. The group involved in the trap really has no bearing on anything other than to provide the means for another movie, which made it just all meaningless. Basically the entire movie followed a group of people going through a series of (useless) traps while the rest was filled with wink-winks and nudge-nudges. SAW V attempts to make the audience feel smart for sticking along for so long, only when it’s all said and done you’ll feel like a fool for sitting through this disappointment. Even the big set up for the sixth film had me cracking up. Via a video will, Jigsaw leaves his wife Jill (Besty Russell) a big box. She looks inside, smiles and we never do find out what’s inside. I am willing to make a cash bet that not only is Jill being set up to be the killer in SAW VI, but also that the box is filled with tapes. That’s how predictable the franchise has become (I guess we’ll find out next October).
As for the directing by David Hackl, there are some beautifully orcastrated shots, such as the “Strahm in a box” scene that you can check out over at BDTV. He also attempts to bring more stagnant shots to the film, instead of those hyper close-ups, which actually removes us from the experience. It also didn’t help that the editing of the finished product is uneven. The opening sequence is flash-cut to sh*t and is nearly disorientating, while the rest of the film is cut more like SAW II than anything else.
Overall, SAW V looked like a made-for-TV movie that might air on the Sci-Fi Channel. It was dull, boring and even looked cheap. There’s literally someone holding or looking through a file in every single scene (outside of the traps) as if it’s they’re there just to add something to the empty space.
The SAW movies have officially gone stale, and while it should have happened way before the fifth film, it’s still quite impressive they got this far. The franchise will live on, but at what cost? It’s time to either take a break or step back and maybe move away from this overly complex situation and start anew. The only cast I ever want to see on screen again is Jigsaw, Amanda or maybe even Riggs – beyond that, it’s not really SAW, is it?
This week’s new releases offer everything from giant monsters to Spielberg aliens to ass-kicking martial artists and even an ash-eating medical student. Do we have your interest?
Here’s all the new genre movies that released on Friday, June 12, 2026!
These aren’t all HORROR movies, but we want you to be aware of them all the same…
Norwegian creature feature Kraken is now available on Digital.
The film was also unleashed in select theaters. Check your local listings.
In the monster movie Kraken, “unnatural behavior in wild salmon, followed by inexplicable deaths in Norway’s deepest fjord, points to the mythical Kraken. The ancient, multi-armed monster has awakened, ready to crush everything that moves or makes a sound.”
Pål Øie (The Tunnel) directs Samuel Goldwyn Films’ Kraken from a script by Vilde Eide, Kjersti Jelen Rasmussen, and Natasha Arthur. Sara Khorami, Mikkel Bratt Silset, Øyvind Brandtzæg, Jenny Evensen, Ingvild Holthe Bygdnes, Jon Erik Myre, Hans Morten Hansen, Steinar Klouman Hallert, and Filip Bargee Ramberg star.
An all girls trip into the desert for escapism fun instead implodes in violence in the revenge thriller Find Your Friends, now streaming only on Shudder.
In the film, “Amber and her four best friends flee Los Angeles for a girls’ trip in Joshua Tree, only to find themselves unwelcome in a desert town simmering with quiet hostility. As isolation sets in and encounters with aggressive locals grow more threatening, festering resentments within the group begin to surface.
“What begins as fun and reckless escape spirals into a violent struggle for control and survival, as past wounds and present dangers collide in a night that turns their trip into a nightmare.”
Bella Thorne (The Babysitter), Chloe Cherry (“Euphoria”), Helena Howard (I Saw the TV Glow), Sophia Ali (Uncharted), Zion Moreno (“Gossip Girl”), and Chris Bauer (“True Blood”) star in the feature debut by writer/director Izabel Pakzad.
Steven Spielberg is more sure today than he was when he made Close Encounters and ET that aliens are very real, and with Disclosure Day, he aims to make you a believer too.
Okay so it’s not a horror movie, but the sci-fi blockbuster is now playing in theaters.
The vague synopsis for Disclosure Day reads: “If you found out we weren’t alone, if someone showed you, proved it to you, would that frighten you? This summer, the truth belongs to seven billion people. We are coming close to Disclosure Day.”
The film stars SAG winner and Oscar® nominee Emily Blunt (Oppenheimer, A Quiet Place), Emmy and Golden Globe winner Josh O’Connor (Challengers, The Crown), Oscar® winner Colin Firth (The King’s Speech, Kingsman franchise), Eve Hewson (Bad Sisters, The Perfect Couple) and two-time Oscar® nominee Colman Domingo (Sing Sing, Rustin).
Based on a story by Spielberg, the screenplay is by David Koepp, whose previous work with Spielberg includes the scripts for Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, War of the Worlds and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Combined, those films earned more than $3 billion worldwide. Koepp also wrote the script for Jurassic World Rebirth.
Steven Spielberg is of course no stranger to extraterrestrial encounters, directing two of the greatest alien movies of all time: Close Encounters of the Third Kind in 1977 and E.T. in 1982. It’s an arena he returned to in 2005, directing an adaptation of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds.
Here in 2026, Steven Spielberg sees hope in the existence of aliens. He notes in the final trailer for Disclosure Day, “How will disclosure change us? I believe for the better.”
Another movie that’s not a horror movie but worth mentioning here is the violent martial arts revenge thriller The Furious, which is now playing in theaters from Lionsgate.
Xie Miao (The New Legend of Shaolin) and Joe Taslim (Mortal Kombat) star.
After his daughter is kidnapped by a criminal network and he receives no help from the corrupt police, Wang Wei sets out on a rampage to find her himself.
His only ally is Navin, a relentless journalist whose wife has mysteriously disappeared. Fueled by a furious vengeance, the unlikely duo ruthlessly fights against the kidnappers.
Kenji Tanigaki (Enter the Fat Dragon) directs from a script by Mak Tin Shu (Kung Fu Jungle), Lei Zhilong, Shum Kwan Sin (Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In), and Frank Hui.
A disturbing weight loss craze involving human ashes opens up a haunting world of hurt for a young woman in Saccharine, which is now available on Digital outlets at home.
From writer/director Natalie Erika James (Relic, Apartment 7A), the Australian supernatural body horror film follows lovelorn medical student Hana, who becomes terrorized by a sinister force after taking part in an obscure weight loss craze: eating human ashes.
Midori Francis (“Grey’s Anatomy”), Danielle Macdonald (Patti Cake$), and Madeleine Madden (“The Wheel of Time”) star in Natalie Erika James’ latest nightmare.
From directors Arturo Ambriz and Roy Ambriz, I Am Frankelda is billed as the first ever full length stop motion movie from Mexico, and it’s now streaming on Netflix.
The history-making stop-motion film is a dark fantasy set in a world of monsters.
Here’s the synopsis: “In 19th-century Mexico, Frankelda is a gifted writer whose dark tales are ignored and dismissed. Forced to suppress her voice, she refuses to give up, even as many try to silence her. But when she is thrust into her subconscious, the very monsters she created come to life.
“Guided by Herneval, a tormented prince trapped between dreams and nightmares, she must restore balance between fiction and reality before both realms collapse. Meanwhile, the sinister writer Procustes and his conspirators plot to seize control. As Frankelda and Herneval grow closer, their bond becomes both a strength and a curse.
“To rewrite their fate, she must confront a love that defies existence and reclaim her power as a storyteller—before dark forces consume her imagination and reveal horrors beyond her creation.”
The directors said in a joint statement, “As brothers, we grew up inventing worlds together, drawing, playing, imagining. Over time we understood that fictional characters were not only companions but guides. Sometimes they felt closer than the people around us. They provided us courage, wisdom, and solace. We believe fiction is not an escape from reality but a way of understanding it. A way of converting truth into palatable chunks. I Am Frankelda comes from a lifelong love of storytelling.”
Mireya Mendoza, Arturo Mercado Jr., and Luis Leonardo Suarez lead the voice cast.
Meagan Navarro writes in her review for Bloody Disgusting, “Mexico’s first stop-motion animated feature is a macabre beauty.” Meagan also notes in her review, “I Am Frankelda is a gothic fantasy feature whose boundless creativity is matched by its ambition.”
The lines of reality and delusion blur in Time of Death, now available on Digital.
Michael Kelly (“The Penguin,” Dawn of the Dead 2004) stars with Kevin Pollak (End of Days), Mena Suvari (Vampires of the Velvet Lounge), and Dennis Haysbert (Send Help).
In the horror-thriller, “When a prisoner vanishes without a trace, Detective Frank Morley (Michael Kelly) is sent to a decaying prison on the verge of shutdown. What begins as a routine investigation quickly spirals into a dangerous search for answers.”
Will Wernick (Escape Room 2017, Follow Me) directs from a script by Jason Rosen. They also produce alongside Kelly Delson, Jeff Delson, and Kyle David Crosby.
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