In 2010, Saw 3D: The Final Chapter wrapped up John "Jigsaw" Kramer's games for good, at least until Lionsgate decided to resurrect the franchise. This summer will see the arrival of Spiral: From the Book of Saw, a reboot/revival of the Saw franchise starring and executive produced by superstar comedian Chris Rock. While Rock at first seems like an odd choice, and it's still unclear how well his acting style will work within the normally quite serious Saw universe, it's become well-known by this point that he's a huge fan of the franchise.
While there's certainly many Saw fans looking forward to seeing what Spiral has in store for the franchise, there's also a sizable segment that are approaching the film with trepidation. That makes sense, as despite the amount of twists and turns included, the first seven Saw films managed to tell a mostly coherent, intertwined story revolving around Jigsaw and his games. The amount of foresight displayed by Kramer concerning events that would take place after his death sometimes stretched credibility, but unlike most horror franchises, Saw actually bothered to maintain tight continuity between installments.
Sure, Saw 3D: The Final Chapter - alternately titled Saw 7 when not seen in the third dimension - certainly wasn't one of the best overall films in the Saw franchise, but it brought the story to a conclusive end. Even if Spiral turns out good, many won't be able to shake the feeling that Lionsgate should've left well enough alone.
While the main game in Saw 7 - which sees motivational speaker Bobby Dagen (Sean Patrick Flanery) put through hell for lying about being a Jigsaw survivor - isn't very compelling, the overall story gets wrapped up pretty nicely. Having died in Saw 3, Jigsaw had used various apprentices to posthumously continue his "work," including Detective Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor). The problem is that after Jigsaw's death, Hoffman became more and more unhinged, and began playing games that no one could actually win, just to torture or punish those he deemed appropriate. Hoffman eventually murders Jigsaw's widow Jill Tuck (Betsy Russell) with a reverse bear trap, leading to the reveal of Jigsaw's final apprentice: Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes) from the first Saw.
Gordon leaves Hoffman to die in the very room he ended the original film, bleeding out after severing his own leg with a saw, although he doesn't even offer Hoffman that option for escape. It's an appropriate, semi-poetic ending to Hoffman's character journey, tied up the loose ends surrounding Gordon, and ended the series on a high note. This is even evidenced by 2017's Saw 8, titled simply Jigsaw, which while it didn't undermine the prior continuity, mostly ignored it in favor of focusing on new characters and a new Jigsaw apprentice. Still, most fans didn't really care for it, and the film ended up feeling entirely unnecessary, becoming an exceedingly superfluous addition to the saga told by the prior seven Saw films. That same fate will very likely befall Spiral: From the Book of Saw, no matter how good it ends up being. Sometimes it's best to quit while one's ahead.
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