Right. Firstly lets remember that I don’t choose the films for the Alphabet Challenge, the role of ‘film chooser’ is randomly allocated amongst a group of us.

That’s how I find myself writing about Saw VI. Especially not having seen anything from Saw II to Saw V.

I saw Saw (See Saw? Saw Saw etc etc) and to be honest, I quite enjoyed it. It was uncomfortable watching at times but struck a impressive balance in a genre of ‘mystery thriller’. The closed room that the 2 main characters found themselves in made for an interesting story that was littered with puzzles and intrigue. It was graphic but had artistic merit, and a great twist ending.

Although I haven’t watched any of the follow ups so far, until this point, I’d understood that they’d shifted genre slightly into more of a graphic and torture focus that had become to be more of attempting to out-graphic, and out-sinister the previous films.

Not only is that seemingly true, but within seconds of Saw VI, this film is living up to that suggestion.

This film follows ‘Mark Hoffman’ (played by Costas Mandylor), a characters who has taken on the mantle of his previous mentor ‘Jigsaw’ and now work to push a senior manager within an Insurance company through a series of ‘games’. This in the tradition of the series are incredibly violent and graphic and see the character having to make life and death decisions to ensure his own safety.

Alongside this is the story of the police continuing to try and understand what is going on with these games, and the work of a journalist (Pamela Jenkins – played by Samantha Lemole) as she tries to uncover the mystery of ‘Jigsaw’.

The film attempts to create a sense of moralism behind the targeting of the victims and makes point of the evil of the lead character in how he has been motivated by money and not considered the human consequences of his work…

…Which is an interesting point of view for a film that is riddled with graphic violence, has no real point to make,  and whose only real logic for being made can credibly be the targeting of an 8 figure profit.