some more interesting than others

Rating: 5/10 (13 October 2016)

Michael Marks is a prisoner of Jigsaw. He fails to dig into his own eye socket to find the key and the head trap closes killing him. Police detective Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg) has rebellious estranged son Daniel who lives with his mother. Eric and Detective Allison Kerry (Dina Meyer) investigate another strange Jigsaw murder. They and the SWAT team track down John Kramer (Tobin Bell) at a booby-trapped warehouse. Kramer shows them a monitor with previous survivor Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith) and Daniel among others in a room at an unknown location where they are threatened with death by lethal gas. The group has to search for the hidden antidotes.
The most appealing aspect of the original is the simplicity of two men locked in a room. There are plenty of asides but it is essentially about the two men. I miss that simplicity. Instead of a whole SWAT team, it would be more compelling to have only Eric finding John Kramer. They could face off directly mano-a-mano. There are some memorable kills but the movie does tilt over to campiness with the elaborate setups.