There is no horror franchise quite like the Saw movies: whereas the likes of Halloween, Friday 13th and Hellraiser let a few years pass between installments (usually because the original writer/director has little, if any, involvement), James Wan's 2004 hit has spawned one follow-up every year, with a new one already behind the corner despite dips in quality and the distinct feeling that the writers have run out of ideas (case in point: the main attraction of the upcoming Saw VII is that it will be shot in 3D). Expectations were particularly low following the disappointing Saw V, but then came a surprise: as preposterous as it may sound, Saw VI is in fact the best of the sequels.

You know the drill by now: although he died three installments ago, John "Jigsaw" Kramer (Tobin Bell, still a creepy presence in the convenient flashbacks) isn't finished with certain people he wants to test, and so a new deadly game is set in motion. This time, the main victim works in health insurance, and it's his questionable method for choosing clients (basically, anyone with short life expectancy is ignored) that will be tested. In the meantime, the killer's apprentice, Detective Hoffman (Costas Mandylor), must keep covering his tracks, having successfully eliminated (and framed) Peter Strahm (Scott Patterson). Also, Jigsaw's widow Jill (Betsy Russell) must deal with the late psychopath's last wishes...

This time, the directorial job has been handed to the franchise's editor, Kevin Greutert, who uses his skills in the best way possible when it comes to creating a claustrophobic, tense atmosphere, something that was severely absent (along with a healthy dose of gore for genre fans) in the previous chapter. Another improved aspect is the writing: even if the announcement of a seventh entry sort of took away credibility from the tag-line "In the end, all the pieces will come together", Saw VI does act as a perfect closure for the series, tying up all the loose ends, granting every character (including the deceased Amanda) a moment in the spotlight and delivering two final twists that are, for once, genuinely surprising and refreshingly nasty.

But that's not the only reason this installment is worth seeing: while previous entries have been analyzed because of Jigsaw's use of torture as a way to understand people, this episode follows the blueprint of Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell by sticking it to people whose jobs aren't very popular in the US nowadays: the first two victims, seen in the pre-credits sequence, are loan-sharks (cue a neat Shakespeare reference), and the main target, as said earlier, works in health insurance. This isn't just torture porn (though there is plenty of it), it's also a genre spin on Michael Moore's work.

Smarter-than-usual writing, interesting social commentary, enough blood to keep gore-hounds happy: Saw VI is the ideal conclusion of the series, having the right elements to satisfy almost everyone. Of course, one question remains to be answered: aside from the 3D, will there be any real reason to watch Saw VII?

It was an uncommonly warm autumn day in London on the afternoon of Friday 23rd of October 2009: the sun was out, the birds were tweeting, and in screen 3 of the Cineworld Fulham Road, a young woman was graphically hacking off her own arm to save her head from being mashed in by a skull-cracking harness.

The gulf between director James Wan's first Saw film, and where we've ended up, is immense. Over the past five years, a tricksy, critically acclaimed crime thriller has morphed into a sprawling daytime soap with added gloop; a guaranteed annual cash cow for bargain-basement distributors Lionsgate, who cattily insist that film critics shell out for their own screenings. Oddly, these films don't tend to pick up very good reviews.

The biggest surprise, then, is that Saw VI isn't totally terrible. I mean, it's still a load of number 2's, obviously. Just not enough to block the toilet. This has been achieved in one very simple stroke. Understanding that some of the best horror films utilise contemporary events to add a powerful frisson of credibility, director and former series editor Kevin Greutert has decided to lend the hermitically-sealed franchise some immediate, and wonderfully mischievous relevancy.

Saw's gamers have never exactly been sympathetic (that's why they've been forced to crawl though those fiendish, flesh-flaying traps in the first place). But for Saw IV, the filmmakers have made them universal objects of scorn and loathing from the outset; nobody's going to mourn these guys. For this time round, the hapless game players-cum-victims are insurance executives and lenders. Hooray! Thus, by ensuring its executions are almost cheerfully retributive, and by jettisoning the tedious police procedurals that have recently capsized the series, this one gives the audience more of what it really wants: lowlifes being dispatched in ingeniously sick and over-the-top ways, such as being forced to hack out their own body fat, or being injected with hydrofluoric acid; melted from the inside out.

Even better, it sets them on each other: after health insurance man William (Peter Outerbridge) turns the cancer-ridden John Kramer / Jigsaw's coverage down, he's abducted and forced to kill off his fellow Noughties whipping-boys and girls in a mockery of the mathematical system he uses to determine who's paid out and who isn't. "In a sense, you get to choose who lives and who dies..." muses an appalled John / Jiggy (Tobin Bell) in flashback, making the lender = 'monster' analogy explicit.

The best and funniest scene sees a bunch of William's fellow insurers strapped around a revolving playground carousel. William must shoot them in turn to save his own skin - though two are allowed to live. What follows is essentially satire, as the horrid little mercenaries alternately plead with him to spare their lives, while verbally ripping each other to shreds, accusing one another of being worthless liars.

Satire suits Saw. It's not like we're asking for yet another sequel exactly (and Saw VII – in 3D! - is already in the works, in any case), but this definitely hints at some interesting new directions.

Another game begins, the wheels of motion are set as Jigsaw's next game begins. Detective Hoffman continues the work, and an unscrupulous insurance executive is challenged to a deadly game of life or death.

Saw 6 reignited my interest in the franchise, I thought 4 and 5 were no more than average, they both felt as though they'd been churned out simply to fill a gap and pick up a few easy bucks, Saw 6 however had a real streak of cleverness.

Looking back now this seemed to lay the ground work for the likes of Saw X and Jigsaw, with better storytelling, more twists and turns, and the usual gore, but it didn't simply rely on the latter, there really was a good bit of storytelling here.

I can't say I truly followed the Hoffman sequences, and to he honest I didn't find them totally interesting, the story of the dodgy executive however, was great, and some of those games were highly imaginative and brutal, not sure I'll ever forget the roundabout of death.

This was much improved over 4 and 5.

7/10.