Brett Garten, Movie Extraordinare
Cinematic Sommelier
6.9
One thing about this franchise – it’s always such a fun ride! This entry in the saga definitely had one of my favorite connected pair of short films and a really interesting underlying narrative piece that came back to tie up the third act. I wouldn’t say the best of the franchise, but it’s a close race with most of these, as they all have such great respective strengths. A fun ride.
6.6
Well, that explains why she and her family were vegetarian.
Well worth bearing with the subtitles.
I can say that I had suspicions of where this was leading, but even I didn’t think it would go as far as it did. There was a nice underlying feeling of discomfort throughout this one that really set the tone and helped drive the narrative home, and made what you see on screen not feel so out of place.
An all consuming narrative.
6.8
Not as bad as the critics are making it out to be.
Is it as good as the original? No.
Did it need to be a part of the “Exorcist” franchise? Also no.
There were some really great sequences and scares here, but it gets bogged down by clunky pacing and misplaced focus at times. It also felt a tad too long. The exorcist lore seemed kind of forced.
That being said, there were some nice twists in the story and a few daring variations from the typical exorcism movie formula that really landed. I wasn’t blown away, but I also didn’t leave mad. The cast act their asses off.
7.3
Definitely the best film, technically speaking, since the first installment. They take their time to delve into John Kramer as a person far more than any other installment, and I felt like that was a welcomed change of pace and added a nice emotional weight to the film outside of the gore. The crusade felt much more justified this time around.
The traps weren’t anything to write home about, but got the job done. The homages to the other films elicited cheers from the audience when they realized what we were looking at taking shape before our eyes. The signature Saw twist ending was as strong as ever, and such a comfort to return to. A welcomed return to form for Jigsaw.
6.7
This film was recommended to me as “it’s a solid horror film, but there’s nothing under the hood.” That was the perfect sales pitch. Like a dream from “Inception,” the viewer is thrust into the narrative with little preparation or explanation of where we are, why we’re here, or why we care. It’s through context (and having watched enough movies to know the gist of what we’re doing here) that I was able to put the pieces together in order for things to start falling into place. It helps that the characters are as one-dimensional as they come. Clear motivations and questionable morals/decision making. The recipe for a solid slasher movie. Just don’t ask too many questions. You won’t be able to get back into it if you do.
I will say that the deeper commentary here regarding social media and sense of self-importance is timely. The execution was clunky, but I greatly appreciated the message being delivered.
Brett Garten, Movie Extraordinare 