New Stills from Saw VI

Today we bring you two new images from the horror film that just won’t die (zing!). No, it’s not Chucky, Jason, Freddy or Michael Myers – I’m talking about Jigsaw and the weirdly popular Saw series. I could go on and on talking about the synopsis of this movie but are there really people that care about that? It’s the same tired concept that has netted the Lionsgate Film studios over $340 million dollars for five films that have a combined budget of roughly $36 million. The chance of them straying off that path for the sixth film is slim.

For those that care, Saw VI brings the return of the Tobin Bell as the (now deceased) mastermind Jigsaw and Shawnee Smith as his protégé Amanda Young (both involved in flashback sequences), Costas Mandylor as Detective Hoffman and Betsy Russell as Jill Tuck.  Joining the red shirt cast (read: soon to die) are the relatively unknown faces of Betsy Russell, Peter Outerbridge, Larissa Gomes, Mark Rolston and Tanedra Howard.

The new stills, released on Saw’s Facebook page (which I have now become a “fan” of thanks to the heads up by Shock Till You Drop) are nothing to get overly excited about but here they are below:

Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) explaining why someone must die.

William Eastman (Peter Outerbridge) is about to take the key: we all know he shouldn't.

I can't help but think of Anthony Hopkins and Silence of the Lambs here.

It does strike me as odd that the Saw series tries to include such an intricate (read: pointless and confusing) plot. The first two sort of needed a plot to help move them along, but after that it became clear why the series was popular – audiences like watching people die in ridiculous ways, which also explains the mind-numbing success of the Final Destination franchise. Putting a plot in a Saw film is the equivalent of putting a plot in a porn film. Both merely set the characters up from one scene to the next with little to no regard for what happened in the scenes before, or the scenes after.

SIDE NOTE: Many of the writers here at Screen Rant talk frequently behind the scenes to bounce ideas off one another, as was the case with these new Saw stills. In this particular instance, I was talking to our very own Scotsman Ross Miller and we determined the Saw franchise has become the new Rocky for the 21^st century. As many of you may recall, during the 80s and 90s Rocky was the butt of many late-night jokes for always having a sequel coming out.  Such is now the case with Saw - Rocky had six films and now so does Saw - but as Ross so eloquently put it, “There will not be a ‘Saw Balboa’”.

Ross also pointed to an episode of Two and a Half Men (which I have never watched) where actors Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer are shown in the future. One of them now works at a movie theater and what is playing on the marquee – none other than Saw 33! It would appear that Rocky has passed the sequel torch on to the Saw, which is apparent by the announcement of Saw VII, VIII and IX before Saw VI ever debuts in theaters.

The new stills don’t do anything to foster my enthusiasm for Saw VI but inevitably I will be the one who reviews it so I’ll hold my nose and swallow the disgusting tasting medicine. Do you disagree and are looking forward to watching the latest installment of Saw?

Saw VI traps audiences in theaters October 23^rd, 2009.

Source: Shock Till You Drop