“Tell me why I had to be a Powerslave. I don’t wanna die. I’m a God. Why can’t I live on?”
–Iron Maiden, “Powerslave”
Every Saw movie has a lesson, a takeaway that goes beyond the confines of being a horror movie. If Saw VI is about anything, it’s about the abuse of power. How any semblance of control informs your decisions. That insidious way that being in charge of the outcomes of human lives seeps into your headbrain and makes you feel self-important. Godlike. It’s such an illusion, and it happens to two characters in this movie with horrific results. Have no doubt: Saw VI is one of the best movies in the franchise and one of the most emotionally compelling.
Good gods, where are we now? I’m a self-proclaimed Saw expert, and even I have a hard time pinpointing exactly when we are. Lieutenant Detective Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) has finally destroyed his arch-nemesis, Special Agent Peter Strahm (Scott Patterson). Strahm was the only person keeping Hoffman’s secret identity as Jigsaw 2: Jig Harder from being revealed to the general public. There are three people Hoffman didn’t count on. Strahm’s boss, Erickson (Mark Rolston) is thisclose to figuring out who the identity of the new Jigsaw. He and Agent Perez (Athena Karkanis), whom we thought was dead at the end of Saw IV, are using audio technology on a Jigsaw tape. They lay filter upon filter on the recording until they can remove the distortion and uncover the actual voice on the micro-cassette. Last, but not least, is Jill Tuck (Betsy Russell), the ex-wife of John Kramer (Tobin Bell). After his death, John left Jill a box filled with instructions about one more game. It’s up to Hoffman to set it up with Jill’s complete knowledge.
This time, Jigsaw’s victims are employees of a health insurance company. In particular, Jigsaw has targeted William Easton (Peter Outerbridge). When Kramer asked Easton to cover an experimental cancer treatment, Easton denied Kramer’s claim. Look: no other movie villain has wanted to stay alive as much as John Kramer. Other big killers, like Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers, simply regenerated because they were something not quite human. Jason got resuscitated by a lightning bolt, for cryin’ out loud. John Kramer is human, frail and fragile, and ready to grasp at the tiniest rope to remain on this side of the grass.
Was the treatment Kramer was after the same treatment that forms the center of Saw X? Maybe. Probably. I don’t know. I’m not a doctor.
When Easton tells Kramer that his last best hope would breach his insurance policy, the game is afoot. Easton needs to be tested. If he can’t rescue the employees of his agency from the various traps that Hoffman has set up on Kramer’s behalf, then he will be destroyed.
Listen: fuck insurance companies. Saw VI is a super dark satire on the American healthcare system, such as it is. Easton is portrayed as a totally self-centered wad of slime, only interested in himself and how the books close out at the end of the month.
Again, this movie is about power. Easton is a powerslave, his life and behaviors contingent upon how much money he can save the company. He has no qualms about sending people to their deaths if it will look good on his P&L report. Easton is as amoral a character that we’ve seen in the Saw series so far. That is, unless you count Hoffman.
Hoffman has gone off his nut. He is determined to keep everyone away from his gig moonlighting as Jigsaw that he somehow becomes a cyborg. Watch in stultified awe as Hoffman destroys everyone that stands in his way. It’s a weird Terminator-like cruise through the FBI’s base of operations as Hoffman stomps a bloodhole in everybody and walks it dry. That sequence is one of the craziest in the entire Saw franchise, and that’s saying a lot.
A lot.
In the end, it’s Jill Tuck that plays the greatest part in Saw VI, leading to one of the wildest endings in the entire franchise.
Hoffman, not quite comfortable in his role as an officer in the Dream Police, is ready to do whatever he needs to do to keep inflicting violence on those he deems worthy. Jill Tuck winds up following her dead ex-husband’s posthumous requests, a continuation of Kramer’s twisted plans from behind the veil. In his ivory insurance tower, William Easton believes he cannot be touched. He’s an asshole, the kind of guy that would cut in front of a blind woman in line at the grocery store. All of these characters take their power and abuse it to the Nth degree. No one is agreeable in this film. Everybody sucks. The only good guy is John Kramer, and that’s a horrible position to be in as a viewer. We have to side with Jigsaw, the negative Buddhist who doesn’t want to just put emotion aside. He wants to eat it and shit it out like a Tootsie Roll Midget.
After the grim info dump of Saw V, the franchise got a swift kick in the kiester with Saw VI. Combining Hoffman’s violent antics with a dark jab at the health insurance industry, Saw VI is one of the best and most entertaining films in the entire series. With its double ending between Hoffman and Easton, Saw VI is a shocking delight. Intriguing, intelligent, and disgusting, Saw VI is a minor horror classic that is well worth a viewer’s time.
