A new trailer for Jigsaw gives fans and newcomers alike a refresher course on the series so far. The Saw franchise was a staple for horror fans every Halloween in the mid to late 2000s, until the series seemingly called it quits with The Final Chapter back in 2010. The Saw movies revolved around the exploits of John Kramer, a man diagnosed with a terminal illness who decides to use the time he has left to kidnap victims and test them to see how much they value their lives.

He would place inside vicious, themed traps, where they would usually have to shed some blood - or limbs - to survive; most of them didn’t. The series is one of the few horror franchises that paid close attention to continuity, with each sequel building on characters and plot revelations from the previous entry. By the time the series reached part seven, though, the story had gotten too convoluted for many, and it felt like Saw had run out of steam by the time The Final Chapter opened in theaters.

Related: Watch the Official Jigsaw Trailer

Jigsaw aims to revive the series once more, and a new trailer has appeared that quickly recaps the first seven Saw movies, and explains Kramer’s motivations and philosophy. The new sequel follows a fresh batch of victims being tested – and tormented - by the legendary Jigsaw... which should be impossible, since John Kramer died in Saw III.

Jigsaw Saw 8 Title Card

It will be interesting to see if Jigsaw does well, since audiences seemed burnt out on the series back when The Final Chapter was released. The Saw franchise belongs to an era of horror commonly known as “torture porn”, which typically featured victims being graphically tortured and dismembered. Other movies from this subgenre including the Hostel films, The Collector and Wolf Creek; and while they proved profitable for a few years, their inherent nastiness soon turned most viewers off.

The original Saw was actually more of a taut thriller with little in the way of gore, and this new entry appears to be playing up the mystery of who exactly is behind the new tests. Jigsaw may have also lucked out in terms of timing since horror is experiencing a real boon right now. IT is now one of the highest grossing horror movies of all time, and Blumhouse is having a great year thanks to films like Happy Death Day, Split and Get Out.

With Pennywise emerging as a new horror icon, and the forthcoming Halloween reboot bringing Michael Myers back to life, maybe there’s room after all for Jigsaw in the modern horror scene.

NEXT: Blumhouse is Dominating the Box Office

Source: Lionsgate

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