Saw VI


Saw VI is a 2009 American horror film directed by Kevin Greutert and written by Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan. A sequel to Saw V and the sixth installment in the Saw film series, it stars Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, Betsy Russell, Mark Rolston, Peter Outerbridge, and Shawnee Smith.
Similar to its predecessor, Saw VI maintains the focus on the posthumous effects of the Jigsaw Killer and the progression of his successor, Detective Lieutenant Mark Hoffman. The plot follows insurance executive William Easton, who must complete a series of deadly "games" set up by Hoffman in order to rescue his employees and family. Meanwhile, the FBI comes to suspect that Agent Peter Strahm, who was framed by Hoffman as being Jigsaw's successor, was not actually Jigsaw's accomplice and re-opens the investigation, drawing Hoffman into motion to protect his secret identity.
Greutert, who had served as editor for the previous Saw films, made his directorial debut with Saw VI. Melton and Dunstan, who wrote the screenplays for Saw IV and Saw V, returned to write the screenplay, and Charlie Clouser, who composed all previous films, returned to compose the score. Shot on a budget of $11 million, it was filmed in Toronto from March to May 2009.
Saw VI was released on October 23, 2009 and ended up grossing over $69.8 million globally. It was the lowest-grossing film in the Saw franchise at the time, but it was still considered a financial success given its low budget. The film received mixed reviews. A sequel, Saw 3D, was released the following year in 2010.

Plot

s Eddie and Simone are locked in head harnesses with screws aimed at their temples, and have one minute to each cut flesh from their bodies and weigh the scale in their favor to survive. Eddie, who is overweight, slices several chunks of fat from his stomach, but is killed after Simone chops off her arm and tips the scale before the timer expires. The game is observed by Mark Hoffman, who has just escaped from the trap that killed FBI agent Peter Strahm. He then uses Strahm's severed hand to plant his fingerprints at the scene. The police and FBI agent Dan Erickson investigate alongside FBI agent Lindsey Perez, whose survival was concealed by Erickson for her protection. During Eddie's autopsy, Dr. Heffner reveals that the blade used to cut the puzzle piece from his remains is the same blade used years earlier on Seth Baxter. Perez and Erickson reopen the investigation, and analyze the videotape found at the scene.
Hoffman arrives at Jill Tuck's clinic and demands five envelopes containing photographs of the following game's test subjects from the box left to her in John Kramer's last request. The game involves health insurance executive William Easton and his associates, whose company's dubious business policy turned down their clients' coverage for medical treatment, one of them being John Kramer. After Hoffman abducts them to an abandoned zoo, William and his janitor, Hank, are suspended in chains with large metal vises that will crush their bodies each time they breathe in their oxygen masks. The vise kills Hank, and William proceeds to his other three tests to unlock the remaining bomb shackles from his limbs. The second test at an aquarium forces William to save his middle-aged secretary Addy over his file clerk Allen, who hangs to death from a barbed-wire noose. At the boiler room, William releases his lawyer Debbie, who attacks him to retrieve a key inside his body and unlock a speargun attached to her harness. He fights her off until the device kills her. William's final test involves his six subordinates chained to a rotating roundabout where he is only able to save two of them from a mounted shotgun. The game is viewed by mother Tara with her teenage son Brent, and news journalist Pamela Jenkins from two opposite animal enclosures below the observation room.
During the game, Hoffman is called away by Erickson to the audio lab after obtaining the videotape. Erickson, now aware of Strahm's demise, confronts Hoffman after discovering the abnormalities found in Strahm's fingerprints at the time of his death. When Hoffman's voice is unscrambled from the tape, he kills Erickson, Perez, and a technician. Hoffman returns to the observation room and finds the letter he wrote to Amanda Young, who indirectly instigated Cecil Adams' robbery at Jill's clinic that resulted in her miscarriage; Hoffman used this knowledge to blackmail Amanda into killing Dr. Lynn Denlon. The letter was found by Pamela and given to Jill, who then uses it to ambush Hoffman. Jill, who had the remaining contents from her box including a sixth envelope containing Hoffman's photo, restrains him and locks a modified reverse bear trap to his head, posthumously fulfilling John's will to test Hoffman after his death.
William reaches the end of his path and enters the cages where he reunites with Pamela, who is his sister. He is confronted by Tara and Brent, the widow and son of Harold Abbott, a former client who succumbed to his heart disease after William denied his medical request. John's videotape informs Tara to decide William's fate by using the lever in her cell connecting to tanks of hydrofluoric acid from each cage. As William and Pamela try to persuade the family, an enraged Brent pulls the lever, releasing a platform of needles that kills William by injecting acid into his body. After Jill leaves, Hoffman breaks his wrist to free himself and gets out of the trap just as it activates, ripping open his right cheek in the process.

Cast

Themes

Contemporary reviews of Saw VI cited elements of social commentary in the film, highlighting the topicality of Jigsaw victims Eddie and Simone—two predatory mortgage brokers—in light of the subprime mortgage crisis, which was ongoing at the time of the film's release. Also noted by critics was Jigsaw's testing of William and his associates as a consequence for their unethical behavior as health insurance providers, with The Philadelphia Inquirers James Franklin writing that, "Saw VI aims to give viewers the vicarious pleasure of seeing the American health insurance industry, personified here as a bunch of back-stabbing jerks, get what's coming to it. Most Americans, however, would probably prefer to pay lower premiums than witness their HMO manager being dissolved from the inside out by hydrofluoric acid."

Production

Development and writing

In, it was reported that Kevin Greutert, the editor of the first five films in the Saw franchise, would make his directorial debut with Saw VI. Greutert found the process of transitioning from editor to director easy due to his experiences in developing short films and his knowledge about the discussions between the producers and filmmakers. Newcomer to the series, Andrew Coutts replaced him as editor for the film. Saw VI marked David A. Armstrong's last time to serve as cinematographer of the series. Mark Burg and Oren Koules again served as producers, with James Wan and Leigh Whannell, creators of the series, executive producing. Charlie Clouser was brought back to compose the score. Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, writers of Saw IV and Saw V, returned to write the sixth installment. Melton said that the film had good pacing and a resolution for the series. Greutert commented that Saw VI would have some finality to it, something he always wanted to see in the series. During the early planning stage for the script it was suggested that Costas Mandylor's character, Detective Hoffman, should take on the mafia due to his vigilante modus operandi, but the idea was quickly dismissed as not "feeling Saw enough" and more like "The Punisher". Greutert said in a Demon FM interview that Lionsgate told him a week before filming, that Saw VI would be post-converted into 3D. Greutert was upset by this, since the film he envisioned was a 2D film, aesthetically. The plans were later abandoned due to time restraints.

Casting

In July 2007, before Saw IV was released, Costas Mandylor signed-on to appear as Mark Hoffman in Saw V and Saw VI. Mandylor commented on his character, "Hoffman is sort of torn of becoming a mad man or becoming a guy that's more composed, coming from a pure place like Jigsaw. That's my character's dilemma; does he go fucking crazy or follow the rules of the boss?". Scott Patterson, who played Special Agent Peter Strahm in Saw IV and Saw V, originally signed on to appear in Saw VI as well, though Patterson noted that signing on the film didn't necessarily meant he would appear on it or that his character couldn't be killed off. A television reality show titled, Scream Queens, aired in 2008 on VH1, in which ten unknown actresses competed for a role in Saw VI. Tanedra Howard won the competition, giving her a role in the film playing Simone; a role she would reprise in the sequel Saw 3D.
Greutert stated that Saw VI would have the most characters of any Saw film to date but reassured the writers would stay true to previous storylines to prevent any "violations of logic and chronology". In March 2009, it was confirmed by news reports that Shawnee Smith would return as Amanda. Newly filmed "flashback" scenes would be created instead of using archive footage from previous entries, as had been done in the films since her character's death in Saw III. On April 19 it was announced that James Van Patten would return as Dr. Adam Heffner, a character featured in the opening scene of the fourth installment performing the autopsy on John Kramer. Peter Outerbridge was cast as a new character, William Easton, and Tobin Bell, Betsy Russell, and Mark Rolston returned as their characters John Kramer, Jill Tuck, and Special Agent Dan Erickson, respectively. Russell commented about her character: "You find out a little more about if Jill is good or evil. Pretty much you'll know." Devon Bostick, who previously appeared as another character in Saw IV, was cast as Brent Abbott, the son of one of William's former clients. Greutert wanted to bring Cary Elwes' Saw character Dr. Lawrence Gordon back but Elwes was unavailable. He was later cast in Saw 3D, though the storyline is different than the one Greutert had planned in Saw VI.