Saw VI

For fans, Saw VI is, pardon the pun, a cut above the rest but not, sadly, by much. The series setup: Jigsaw (Bell), a homicidal maniac with a warped moral sensibility who has been dead since Saw III, is still capturing ordinary people who've aggrieved him and forcing them to make life-or-death choices to secure their freedom. Nowadays, he's using a proxy: his former nemesis Detective Hoffman (Mandylor, returning), who is no less creative in his hellish ministrations. The opening bloodbath alone, which provides a witty (if sticky) and literal take on the old "pound of flesh" biblicism, is, in terms of the series’ relentlessly downbeat and run-take-a-shower art design, as artfully constructed as anything that's come before. This time, the writers (Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton) have given the viewers someone considerably more satisfying to root against: Jigsaw's former health-insurance adjuster (Outerbridge), who once denied a claim that may have saved Jigsaw's life.