Saw VI is a 2009 horror film directed by Kevin Greutert (in his feature directorial debut) from a screenplay by Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan. It is the sixth installment in the Saw film series. The film stars Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, Betsy Russell, Mark Rolston, Peter Outerbridge, and Shawnee Smith. Similar to its predecessor, Saw VI maintains the focus on the posthumous effects of the Jigsaw Killer and the progression of his successor, Mark Hoffman. The plot follows an insurance executive who must complete a series of deadly "games" set up by Hoffman in order to rescue his employees. Meanwhile, the FBI comes to suspect that Peter Strahm, who was framed by Hoffman as being Jigsaw's successor, is not actually a Jigsaw accomplice and reopens the investigation, drawing Hoffman into motion to protect his secret identity.
Greutert served as editor for all the previous Saw films before making his directorial debut with Saw VI. Melton and Dunstan, the writers for both Saw IV and Saw V, returned to write the screenplay and Charlie Clouser, who provided the score for all previous Saw films, composed the score. Filming took place in Toronto from March to May 2009 with a budget of $11 million.
The film was released by Lionsgate in the United States on October 23, 2009. In Spain it was the first film to receive a Película X rating for violence (a rating usually reserved for pornographic films); the rating restricted screenings to eight select theaters in that country. It was released almost a year later on October 8, 2010 in Spain with an "18" rating, after the producers had the offensive content edited out, according to the rating board. With gross receipts of $14 million in its opening weekend, Saw VI placed second to Paranormal Activity's $21 million. Saw VI went on to gross over $68 million worldwide, the lowest-grossing Saw film at the time, but still a financial success compared to its small budget. Reviews were mixed, with some criticizing the acting and others praising Greutert's directing, considering it an improvement over the last few installments, and noted the film's contribution to the debate on healthcare reform in the United States. A sequel, Saw 3D, was released in 2010.
Plot[]
Predatory lenders Eddie and Simone, locked in head harnesses with screws aimed at their temples, have one minute to each carve flesh from their bodies with their provided cutting tools and weigh the scale individually in favor for survival. When the overweight Eddie slices chunks of fat from his stomach, the contraption kills him after Simone chops off her arm and tips the scale until the timer expires. Their game is observed by Mark Hoffman, who had just escaped from the trap that killed FBI Agent Peter Strahm. He then uses Strahm's severed hand to plant his fingerprints at the scene. The police and FBI Agent Dan Erickson investigate alongside FBI Agent Lindsey Perez, whose survival was concealed by Erickson for her protection. During Eddie's autopsy, Dr. Adam Heffner reveals the blade used to cut the flesh pieces from his body is the same blade used years ago on Seth Baxter. Perez and Erickson reopen the investigation to analyze the videotape found at the crime scene and distort the speaker's voice.
Hoffman arrives at Jill Tuck's clinic and demands her to hand him five envelopes containing photographs of the following game's test subjects from the box left to her in John Kramer's last request. The game involves health insurance executive William Easton and his associates, whose company's dubious business policy turned down their clients' coverage for medical treatment, including Kramer. After Hoffman abducts them to an abandoned zoo, William and his janitor Hank are suspended in chains with large metal vises that will crush their bodies each time they breathe in their oxygen masks. The vise kills Hank as William proceeds to his other three tests to unlock the remaining bomb shackles from his limbs. The second test at an aquarium forces William to save his elderly secretary Addy over his file clerk Allen who hangs to death from his barbed-wire noose. At the boiler room, William unwittingly releases his lawyer, Debbie, who attacks him to retrieve a key inside his body and unlock a speargun attached to her harness. He fights her off until the device kills her. William's last test involves his six subordinates chained to a rotating roundabout where he is only able to save two of them from a mounted shotgun. The game is viewed by mother Tara with her teenage son Brent and news journalist Pamela Jenkins from two opposite animal enclosures below the observation room.
During the game, Hoffman is called away by Erickson to the audio lab after obtaining the videotape. Erickson, now aware of Strahm's demise, confronts Hoffman after discovering the abnormalities found in Strahm's fingerprints at the time of his death. When Hoffman's voice is unscrambled from the tape, he kills Erickson, Perez and a technician before they could discover his identity as Jigsaw's accomplice. Hoffman returns to the observation room and finds the letter he wrote to Amanda Young, who indirectly instigated Cecil Adams' robbery at Jill's clinic that resulted in her miscarriage; Hoffman used this knowledge to blackmail Amanda into killing Dr. Lynn Denlon. The letter was found by Pamela and given to Jill, who then uses it to ambush Hoffman. Jill, who had the remaining contents from her box including a sixth envelope containing Hoffman's photo, restrains him and locks a modified Reverse Bear Trap to his head, posthumously fulfilling John's will to test Hoffman after his death.
William reaches the end of his path and enters the cages where he reunites with Pamela who was his sister. He is confronted by Tara and Brent who were the family of Harold Abbott, a former client who succumbed to his heart disease after William recently denied his medical request. John's videotape informs Tara to decide William's fate by using the lever in her cell connecting to tanks of hydrofluoric acid from each cage. As William and Pamela try to persuade the family, an enraged Brent pulls the lever which releases a platform of needles that kills William by injecting acid into his body. Jill exits the room as Hoffman escapes his wrist restraints. He slips out of his trap as it activates, ripping apart his right cheek in the process.