MicroCinema Scene

I enjoyed Vengeance of the Dead, my first exposure to Wisconsin fimmakers Adams and Picardi.  That movie had deliberate pacing, good performances, and a decent script.

Which is why it’s hard for me to say that Jigsaw has none of those things, and less.

Right from the start things are rough. We meet a classroom of college students, but it’s edited in such a way that we don’t even realize there are more than six people in the room until the final shot of the scene. The teacher assigns only five of his students the task of decorating various body parts on a mannequin - and since there are only two legs, two arms, and a head - the rest of the class get A’s and can skip the next session. These unlucky students, though, are supposed to meet up at a bar to discuss why they decorated their body parts (and how they did) while doing shots.

Seriously, that’s how the movie starts.  To briefly sum up the rest of the story:  the class meets, some of them share their problems, and the newly decorated mannequin comes to life and kills them off one by one.  Why does he kill them?  I have no idea since it’s never explained.  What could they have done to cause an inanimate object to become a killing machine?  Again no clue - it just happens.  Why is he killing those who created him?  We’ll never know.

I will say without hesitation that Jigsaw is technically one of the best looking micro movies I’ve ever seen.  The framing, the lighting, and the sets are all fantastic.  Some of the performances are decent, especially Aimee Bravo as the “hot girl” (her horror movie designation).  She’s given one of the few good acting moments in the flick, and she delivers.  The rest of the cast range from “okay” to “not okay.” And if you’re looking for some cheap thrills by way of gore or skin, you won’t find it here.

The real problem here is the script.  The characters are barely given one dimension, there are more questions than answers, and it ends so abruptly I actually yelled “Oh come on!” at my TV. Given a few rewrites I don’t doubt that Jigsaw could have been a decent little horror movie. Instead it’s an exercise in frustration.

One star

Running Time: 90 min.
Director: Don Adams and Harry Picardi
Writer: Don Adams and Harry Picardi
Cast: Aimee Bravo, Barrett Walz, and a mannequin with a shotgun.
Score: *
Web Site: Tempe Video

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