“I want to play a game.”

In 2004, director James Wan forever changed the horror genre with the film Saw, featuring two men kidnapped and trapped in a room, needing to solve various puzzles to escape. For 13 years, the series has continued, making its name by the use of heavy gore, flashbacks, and plot twists keeping viewers guessing.

The latest film in this iconic series is Jigsaw, the eighth film in the series, featuring the legacy left, even after the death of the original Jigsaw killer John Kramer (played by Tobin Bell).

The game starts, featuring five new victims chosen to repent for their sins. In each trap, the captives are killed off one by one, while being forced to admit the terrible deeds they had commit.

Detective Halloran (Callum Keith Rennie) and Detective Hunt (Clé Bennett) are baffled to find that the victims have traces of John Kramer’s DNA, despite the fact that he has been dead for 11 years, leaving them to hunt the undead killer.

During these events, forensic pathologist Logan Nelson (Matt Passmore) discovers that his assistant, Eleanor Bonneville (Hannah Emily Anderson), has been collecting traps used by Jigsaw, and collecting blueprints of those never discovered to build them herself.

Logan and Eleanor discover where the current game is taking place, and are followed there by Halloran, where all hell breaks loose for them.

Though the reviews say otherwise, the Saw franchise as a whole is widely popular among fans of horror, and after seven years, Jigsaw is a perfect way to revive the series.

This film features plot twist after plot twist, keeping the eyes of those new to the series and dedicated fans glued to the screen.

As someone who adores the series as a whole, while thinking that most of the individual films are fairly weak without the others, I was delighted to see such a strong plot and all sorts of new ways to tell the story. Though it used similar elements from previous films, such as flashbacks and obviously violence, I couldn’t help but be surprised as the story unraveled.

For those interested in gore, prepared for blood and limbs falling off, and for those who care more for the story, prepare yourself for question after question, with answers you may not expect.

Overall, 4.5 out of 5 stars.