It's now official -- the Saw franchise is dead. At least to me it is after watching the latest installment in the never-ending series. The first film was great, the sequel even surpassed it in some ways, while the third was another solid addition, although lacking in some aspects. Once Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan (Feast, Feast II: Sloppy Seconds) took over writing duties in the fourth film (which I didn't think was entirely too bad), the series was clearly going to go through a steady downfall, case-and-point; Saw V -- the weakest and poorest-reviewed feature in the franchise, and with good reason.

The characters are uninteresting, the traps are dull, and the script itself is just too simple and straight-forward at times. This definitely didn't feel like a Saw movie, from the production values to the script, I felt like I was watching some sort of new straight-to-DVD feature. Normally they try to top the previous installment with even more gore or crazier contraptions, but it seems like they were just straight-up lazy here. There are a few pretty gory sequences, but nothing compared to the previous sequels.

The writers attempted to wrap up a few questions in the storyline (like the glass box trap) and the whole Hoffman storyline, which is good and interesting at times, but for the most part falls pretty flat. Through most of the movie I didn't care for the characters, nor what happens next. The new group of people that are forced to go through a series of traps are also lacking. We're given a brief rundown of their backgrounds then immediately witness their demise one after the other. Why should I care? When it came down to the climax and the twists are revealed I'm left asking myself 'is that it?,' because it definitely didn't seem like it.

As a Saw movie this is pretty poor, but as a standalone horror flick, it's decent. It still offers some above-average blood and gore and it's nice to see Tobin Bell as Jigsaw still walking about and causing trouble, despite his obvious death (thanks to backwards storytelling!) because his character just oozes all kinds of badass. Other than the gore and Tobin Bell, the movie doesn't really offer much more redeeming value, and was it just me or did all the male leads try their hardest Tobin Bell/Jigsaw impression every time they opened their mouths? I have to say that I'm not looking forward to the next movie, which once again opens in October of next year. I'm hoping it'll be the final addition to the series, because the movies are really starting to become hard to watch.

Proof that the Saw series is dead. This was a very disappointing and lackluster installment in the seemingly never-ending franchise, and I hate to say it but I've seen straight-to-DVD features better than this. Check this only to find out answers to some questions you may have about the previous flicks, but I'd recommend skipping it otherwise.