Saw 6 (2009) is the only movie to break the franchise's monotony, which is defined by horrific torture and execution devices intended to teach their victims the value of human life. These devices are, for the most part, designed by John Kramer (Tobin Bell), also known as the Jigsaw serial killer. The film series is primarily focused on these devices, with the exception of Saw 6, which partially shifts its focus away from them.
Jigsaw uses his devices as a part of elaborate tests and trials for people who have strayed from the path of virtue, many of whom have directly wronged Jigsaw himself—failing these tests usually means death. Despite the grisly fates that often befall his test subjects, Jigsaw considers his quest to be a righteous one and considers his crimes justifiable because of the virtuous intent behind them. Up until Saw 6, each film in the series supports Jigsaw's argument by testing increasingly corrupt and depraved individuals.
In Saw 6, however, Jigsaw's argument itself is put on trial, which is a good thing for the franchise. The focus of the film becomes whether or not Jigsaw and the characters who work for him can be trusted at all. The best part of this shift is that Jigsaw himself built it into his ultimate plan. He had intended all along to test his most powerful accomplice, Detective Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor), who never seemed to fully grasp the greater good that Jigsaw was trying to do.
Don't Trust The One Who Saves You
The righteousness of Jigsaw's vigilante justice was always questionable, as all types vigilante justice are. From Dirty Harry (1971) to Death Wish (1974, 2018), characters who take the law into their own hands are understandably looked at with doubt, whether they are police officers or private citizens. It is precisely this legitimate doubt that makes the shift a great step—perhaps a necessary step—for the film series. Saw 6 highlights what is perhaps Jigsaw's biggest virtue—the foresight to know that even the best intentions, including his own, can become corrupted.
Although the film does feature the same kinds of gory tests and tortures as the rest of the films in the series, its true focus is Detective Mark Hoffman's guilt and how Jigsaw intended to deal with it from beyond the grave. The subsequent films in the series don't drop this new focus altogether and the prior films do touch upon the subject minimally, but it is only Saw 6 that really drives the point home.
Ironically, perhaps the best reference of the film's shift in focus is in the post-credits scene where Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith) tells Corbett Denlon (Niamh Wilson), "Don't trust the one who saves you". She is referring, of course, to Detective Mark Hoffman, but she could also be speaking of Jigsaw or any other so-called savior who employs such extreme and morally questionable methods.