As disturbing as it is, the Saw franchise is becoming one of my oldest acquaintances. I mean, I’ve covered the movies since my earliest days here at CHUD. Every year, a new Saw DVD would arrive in my mailbox like the yearly visit from family during the holidays. It’s almost like that episode of Superman: The Animated Series, “Mxyzpixilated,” when Mxyzptlk would make his regularly scheduled appearance to Supes and it got to the point where Clark was circling the date on his calendar like clockwork. In our reality, that date is every October for the last five years. You see Halloween shit all over town, that means that the next Saw flick ain’t far behind. We’ve got Saw VI breathing down our necks this year.
And now Saw VII is on deck for next year.
Variety reports that the “deals are cut” (heh, Saw…cut…) for the seventh installment in the annual splatterfest. David Hackl (the last name might immediately tell you something), production designer for II, III and IV, and director of V will be returning to helm. Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton, who wrote IV, V, VI, and whose upcoming The Collector opens next weekend, will also be back to scribble the next one.
I was thinking that since Jigsaw croaked all the way back in III, that these last three would wrap up the loose ends. Silly me. To give the series the faintest bit of credit, there is care taken to keep the continuity straight. However, since V was essentially a retconfest, and that the series has by now lost nearly every shred of narrative heft with Jigsaw’s death, that just means that now it’s all about who can die the wettest.
No mention yet if Tobin Bell will be back for VII, but if this series is to become the Friday The 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street of this generation as it now looks like it will, it’s a safe bet that they’re going to need to find a new angle to help it turn the corner. Maybe they can drop Jigsaw’s body in toxic waste or something.