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Avg. Critic Score: 19 out of 100 Generally unfavorable reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
17 not for kids
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 42
    Entertainment Weekly |

    The production values have become so horror-movie shoddy that Saw V has more in common with kitsch like "Friday the 13th Part V" than the original "Saw." Read full review

  • 40
    L.A. Weekly |

    The method to the madness of the traps turns out to be quite clever, but the rewriting of Saw mythology is the slasher equivalent of revising Star Wars so that Greedo fires at Han Solo first. Read full review

  • 30
    Austin Chronicle | Marc Savlov

    Truly, the greatest torture of all is boredom. Read full review

  • 25
    The Onion A.V. Club | Nathan Rabin

    Devotes so much time and energy to flashbacks and recycling footage from its predecessors that it threatens to implode. Read full review

  • 25
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

    Saw V is a terrible combination: grisly and tedious. Let's just call it bloody dull. Read full review

  • 20
    New York Daily News | Elizabeth Weitzman

    This year's installment is as disappointing as a Halloween bag filled with nothing but raisins. Read full review

  • 20
    The Hollywood Reporter | Frank Scheck

    By-the-numbers retread. Read full review

  • 12
    Boston Globe | Wesley Morris

    Oh, Jigsaw. Here we go again. You kill. I doze off. Someone at the studio goes "ka-ching!" Read full review

  • 10
    The New York Times | Nathan Lee

    Skips back and forth in time, trying to piece together who did what, when and why. The only question really worth asking here: Who cares? Read full review

  • 10
    Los Angeles Times |

    A particularly dull and discombobulated affair, shot and acted with all the flair of a basic-cable procedural. Patterson and Mandylor are so wooden that their cat-and-mouse game has all the excitement of watching dust bunnies swirl in an air current. Read full review

View more reviews for Saw V on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says not for kids Dullest film in series is still brutal and bloody.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this "torture porn" horror movie is full of graphic, grisly violence that combines sadistic terror with state-of-the-art makeup and effects. Lots characters are killed in lots of ways, all very graphically and all shown on screen. There are flashbacks to deaths and violence from earlier films in the Saw series and extensive use of crime scene photographs showing dead bodies. There's also some strong language (including "f--k"), but the majority of the film involves sadistic brutality crafted by the film's villain as a series of "games" -- like a sequence in which characters trapped in a room with a bomb must volunteer to place their arms in a box with a saw so their blood will fill a jar; when filled, the jar will trigger the door that leads to safety. That's just one example; there are many, many more.
  • Families can talk about why people are drawn to violent and sadistic films. What is their appeal? Also, is there an artistic difference between a well-made gory film and a badly made one? Is there a moral or ethical difference? Families can also discuss the ongoing popularity of the Saw series -- are the producers just giving people what they want, or bleeding a cash cow?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: A killer frames an innocent man for his crimes; a serial killer traps people in insane deathtraps; discussions of corruption, bribery, arson, and drug addiction.
What to watch for
  • violence false5 Violence: Constant, brutal, bloody violence, including beatings, clubbing, shootings, stabbings, and more. Characters are constantly placed in maniacal deathtraps against their will. A woman is decapitated by one of these traps; a man is eviscerated by a pendulum blade; another man is killed by a bomb. A wounded woman is seen convulsing as electrical current is applied to her body. A man is trapped in a box full of razor wire. Blood is sprayed, spit up, and spilled liberally. Dead bodies are seen on screen and in crime scene photographs; throats are slit; people are stabbed with hypodermic needles and sedated against their will; bones are crushed; a man's arms are broken with such force that the bone is seen protruding from the flesh; a man whose head is trapped in a box filling with water self-administers a tracheotomy to survive. A man and woman place their hands on a band saw that splits their arm between the radius and ulna halfway up their forearm; the grotesque wound is shown on screen. People are threatened with guns, nail bombs, electrocution, and more.
  • sex false3 Sex: Some discussion of sexual activity; a corpse is shown with cleavage visible.
  • language false4 Language: Frequent strong language, including "f--k," "motherf---er," "a--hole," "s--t," and more.
  • consumerism false0 Consumerism: Not an issue
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false4 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Characters drink hard liquor, beer, and wine; cigarettes are held -- but not smoked -- on screen. A drug addict character is in the throes of withdrawal and shows his needle marks.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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