Great twist to an average horror/crime thriller

Rating: 7/10 (26 January 2006)

A strange little 'bottle' film where not enough happens, and certainly not on a broad enough canvas, to justify its cinematic dreams, but it would have made a blinding TV thriller.
While not as clever as it likes to think it is - one particular flashback-within-flashback sequence is pretty much guaranteed to scramble the viewers concept of plot flow - the script is gifted with a killer twist that almost makes up for many of the films perceived weaknesses.
It is also helps to treat the central villain - the Jigsaw Killer - as an 18-certificate incarnation of Batman's nemesis, The Joker. That mindset also helps justify his otherwise unexplained access to presumably very expensive 'toys' to kit out his torture rooms.
Perhaps I think too much about these things ...