How much bigger can this thing get? You know what they say, “It it’s Halloween, it must be Saw.” And yes, this October 23rd, SAW VI opens at a theatre near you. What can we expect? Will all our questions be answered? At this point, who the hell knows. But with the amount of “assistants” that Jigsaw seems to have, I hope they have a good health plan.
I recently attended the junket for Saw VI and had the chance to speak with three of the films stars, including Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor and newcomer Tanedra Howard. Usually, when you do a junket, the studio holds a screening of the film so you have a basis on which to question the talent. Not this time. Either Lionsgate is afraid critics will butcher their film worse than Jigsaw’s victims, or they really want to keep the plot secret, whatever the reason, it limits what you can get from the actors involved.
I will say that the set up for the junket was pretty incredible. Usually, they are held in a fancy hotel with a nice lunch and comfy chairs. This time out, the interviews were held inside the Saw Maze at Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights. While a smart actor won’t spill the beans about who did what and how in a Saw movie, at least they were surrounded by some groovy props. I found Costas room especially interesting. It included the poor victim frozen to death in Part 3, although for the purpose of the junket, the mannequin had something concealing her privates. When I noticed this, Costas flashed a boob for me before the interview.
As for any real insight, all I can say is this thing seems to just get bigger. When I spoke to Tobin about how much longer a dead man can continue in the world he created, he cryptically responded with something like, “It depends on how big the puzzle is… there is a piece here and a piece there… you never know.” Or something along those lines. Is it vague? Absolutely. Does he know more than he is sharing? I’d almost guarantee it. Could there be another player involved? I’m guessing yes… I mean, what really happened to Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes)? Is he going to pop up somewhere?
And what about Hoffman (Mandylor)? “I have no idea whether I live or die… we shot three or four different endings.”, Costas told me. He seemed to be genuinely a little nervous as he also mentioned he was the one character to live the longest in the franchise. While none of the actors offered any real insight, they were all very nice and seem pretty excited about the sixth time around. Keep a look out for the complete interviews closer to the films release.
The official synopsis tells us that, “Special Agent Strahm is dead, and Detective Hoffman has emerged as the unchallenged successor to Jigsaw’s legacy. However, when the FBI draws closer to Hoffman, he is forced to set a game in motion, and Jigsaw’s grand scheme is finally understood.” So when Saw takes on a third dimension, should we expect a whole new set of characters? I doubt that. I have a feeling, judging from Mr. Bell’s response, that John Kramer will haunt us as long as the Saw films are making money.